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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27795850">Team Kakashi</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkstallion01/pseuds/darkstallion01'>darkstallion01</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:13:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>46,017</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27795850</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkstallion01/pseuds/darkstallion01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A small decision on the Sandiame's part turns Naruto's life upside down. With the help of his teammates and his wayward teachers, Naruto is ready to raise hell against anyone who dares to oppose Konoha or harm the people he holds dear.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>53</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I do not own anything of the Naruto franchise, it's all Kishimoto's creation. I just wrote something i would have liked to see. That's it.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Chapter 1 -- With Great Knowledge Comes Great Responsibility</p><p> </p><p>After failing the graduation exam second time, little Uzumaki Naruto drew together his courage to leave the academy, only to see parents greeting their kids and congratulating them on passing and becoming a genin. They were all laughing and celebrating but no was seeing his way.</p><p>As soon as he stepped out the door, all laughter stopped and everyone started glaring at him. Every bit of Naruto’s gathered courage immediately left him and at that moment he wished he knew of a jutsu that could make him invisible.</p><p>“Go away you bastard!” someone yelled.</p><p>Naruto refused to look up to see who it was and started running to his favorite place in all of Konoha, the Hokage Monument. It was the only place where he could have peace and not be glared at by anyone.</p><p>The Hokage monument is a collection of the faces of the previous and present Hokages carved in a rocky mountain. Currently there were four of them depicting the four Hokages who had ruled over Konoha.</p><p>Naruto made his way towards the Fourth Hokage’s head and sat down dejectedly.</p><p><em>' I failed the exam. Again.'  </em>he thought.</p><p>Hot tears made their way down his face, as he pulled his legs closer to himself and wrapped his arms around them. Heaving a sigh, Naruto put his head on his knees. He could not understand why people were so mean to him. They kicked him out of their shops, refused to let him enter in any of the restaurants and many other things no child should have to go through.</p><p>Only the Ichiraku’s were the one that served him anything. The father and daughter duo were very nice to Naruto despite everything. They were the ones who fed him and tried to console him on his bad days.</p><p>“Why? Why me? What did I ever do to them?” Naruto said, voice barely above a murmur. He knew no one would ever answer him.</p><p>He sat there for a while, allowing himself the vulnerability he never showed in front of anyone. Upon lifting his head, his eyes caught a field of purple colored flowers. From afar they looked like a cylindrical bunch of bubbled petals on long green stems. Naruto didn’t know why but he felt like his sorrow was reflected by the blooming flowers.</p><p>Putting his brave face back on, Naruto decided to get up and go back to his dingy one-bedroom apartment, when all of a sudden a person appeared behind him.</p><p>“Uzumaki-san,” the person called out in a monotone.</p><p>Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin. Placing a hand on his heart in an effort to calm it down, he turned.</p><p>There was a woman with straight purple hair coming down to her waist, standing behind him just a few feet away. She wore standard ANBU gear consisting of a grey flak jacket over black clothing, grey arm guards, black shinobi pants which were fastened to black sandals with black colored tape, a sword strapped to her back with a cat mask on her face.</p><p>“Ahh… Cat-san. Why are you looking for me?” Naruto asked. He knew that the ANBU were only supposed to be called by their mask name when on duty, not that he knew their real name anyway.</p><p>“Hokage-sama wishes to see you.” the woman replied.</p><p>Naruto noticed the signature ANBU tattoo on the woman’s left shoulder when she stood up and turned halfway, before walking away. He nodded and followed after the ANBU to the Hokage’s office.</p><p> </p><p>The Hokage’s office was on the top floor in the administration building that was attached to the shinobi academy. It was a large circular room with bookshelves on the right and Hokage portraits on the left, there was a small couch below those portraits and a lot of papers here and there. At the far end of the room was a desk with the symbol of Konoha and kanji for ‘Fire’ on the front of it. Sitting behind the desk was the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, in his formal attire and behind him were windows that overlooked the village.</p><p>Naruto smiled, he had always loved the Hokage’s office, despite the massive amount of papers in the room. Because it was only this place, other than the Hokage monument, from where the entire village could be seen.</p><p>“Heya Jiji. Ya wanted to see me?” Naruto exclaimed loudly upon entering the office.</p><p>He knew that the Hokage considered him his surrogate grandson and loved him very much, that was the only reason why he could easily get away with calling the strongest shinobi in the fire country ‘old man’.</p><p>Hiruzen looked up from his stack of papers and smiled at Naruto. Hiruzen looked like a wise old grandfather with his short stature, white hair, and a small white goatee. He looked at Naruto with a kind smile and a hint of sadness in his small brown eyes.</p><p>“Naruto my boy, yes I wanted to talk to you. Thank you Cat, you can go now.” Hiruzen said and made a few hand-signs.</p><p>Naruto felt a rush of chakra and the room glowed blue for a second. He realized that whatever the Hokage wanted to talk to him about must be important.</p><p>“Naruto, I heard that you failed the graduation exam again. You told me that you had studied this time. Did you lie to me?”</p><p>“No, I would never,” Naruto shouted in disbelief. He had never lied to his jiji. Looking at the floor, he mumbled “It’s not my fault,”</p><p>“Speak louder Naruto. Is this how you are going to become the Hokage? You do know that you cannot be a Hokage if you don’t graduate and become a genin, don’t you?”</p><p>Hiruzen’s stern words pricked at Naruto’s already bleeding wounds and his carefully controlled emotions spilled out of his grasp.</p><p>“It’s not my fault!” Naruto yelled. “The teachers at the academy don’t teach me anything. They kick me out of the class on the smallest of things and when I ask them if I could read at the academy library they yell at my face and tell me to leave. The villagers don’t sell me books and even if somehow, I get some books they destroy my house and belongings every chance they get. The librarian at the central library calls me a demon child and throws me out whenever I try to go there. You don’t have time for me. I don’t have any friends because their parents hate me and call me names. Apart from Iruka sensei, no one wants me to learn anything. NOW YOU TELL ME HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO GRADUATE IF THE WHOLE VILLAGE IS AGAINST ME!!”</p><p>Naruto’s shoulder’s shook, he hadn’t meant to burst out at the Hokage like this. He took in deep breaths to calm himself. But after being blamed almost all his life, he was at his wit’s end.</p><p>The Hokage looked heartbroken, Naruto kept his gaze on the Hokage’s furrowed eyebrows and the downtrodden expression until he couldn’t.</p><p>Slowly hunching in on himself, Naruto fell on the ground with the thump. He cursed himself for crying in front of Hiruzen specially after yelling at him just a few seconds ago. In a matter of minutes Naruto found himself off the floor and beside the Hokage on the couch nearby. The tight grip on his shoulder, Hiruzen had, made Naruto focus back on the present.</p><p>“I am sorry Jiji... I didn’t mean to yell at you,” Naruto sniffed.</p><p>A few minutes followed by Naruto silently crying into his hands, he settled, staring at his hands in his lap.</p><p>“Naruto have you heard the story of the Kyubi?” Hiruzen asked suddenly, a contemplating look on his face, as if he was gauging out Naruto’s reaction.</p><p>“The Kyubi? Why are you asking about him all of a sudden Jiji?”</p><p>“What do you know about the Kyubi, Naruto?”</p><p>Naruto furrowed his eyebrows as he thought back on the legend of the Fourth Hokage that was known to every single person, shinobi, civilians alike. Even the people of other villages know about the Fourth Hokage, Naruto sniffed once before iterating the tale.</p><p>“I know that it attacked Konoha on my birthday 10<sup>th</sup> October, 11 years ago and killed a lot of people until the Yondaime showed up and killed it sacrificing his life in the process,”</p><p>Naruto, from the bottom of his heart, considers the Fourth Hokage as his idol. The man had loved Konoha just as much as Naruto does. He dreamt of being loved and idolized after, just like the Fourth Hokage.</p><p>Hiruzen’s face saddened further, “That is not the complete story Naruto. I am sorry for not telling you but you have to understand whatever I did, I did it to protect you,”</p><p>The sudden change in Hiruzen’s voice made Naruto a tad bit suspicious. Adding to that , the out of context apology and topic were confusing Naruto as the talk went on, “Jiji what are you talking about?”</p><p>“No one can kill a bijuu, Naruto. They are beings of pure chakra. They can only be sealed within a person and that person is then called a Jinchuriki, a human sacrifice. As a person grows older it gets tougher to seal a tailed beast inside them. Because a person with already formed chakra coils cannot handle the chakra of a tailed beast and would die within a few hours of sealing. Kyubi is the most powerful bijuu of all, so it had to be a baby who could hold the tailed beast back without harming itself in the process,”</p><p>Naruto looked at Hiruzen with a horrified expression when the true meaning of the words dawned on him “…. And that baby was me, wasn’t it? Jiji, are you saying that the Yondaime sealed the Kyubi inside me?”</p><p>Naruto turned away, <em>‘I considered the man my idol, whereas he is the reason why I was discriminated against my whole life! My whole life!’</em></p><p>“In his defense you were born just a few hours before the Kyubi attacked. You must have seen a seal on your stomach. That is the only thing holding the Kyubi at bay.” Hiruzen said.</p><p>
  <em>‘Defense?’</em>
</p><p>“But that doesn’t give him the right to seal a demon into a child,” Naruto paused as he stood up, a gesture to emphasis his statement, “an orphan child at that.”</p><p>Naruto’s eyes widened, he drew in a sharp breath, <em>‘No, no, oh Kami no,’ </em>he kept repeating in his mind.</p><p>“Jiji… is this why he sealed the Kyubi inside me? Because I was an orphan…or,” Naruto paused again. The words were stuck inside his throat, it didn’t matter whether he had taught himself how to speak or he had sometimes trouble understanding what was being said to him, but instead it was the words itself. He was afraid of speaking them into existence.</p><p>“…or is that why my parents left me? Because they thought I was the demon itself?” he finished in a low voice.</p><p>Naruto gritted his teeth, clenched his fists tightly, in an effort to prevent his inevitable struggle over sanity, when a hand landed on his shoulder.</p><p>“No Naruto that is not true. You are not the demon.” Hiruzen answered firmly. “You are just its jailor. Your parents gave their lives to stop the Kyubi from destroying the village. They loved you Naruto. They loved you very much. When your father found out about your mother’s pregnancy, he was the happiest man on the planet. Your mother was just as excited to have you as your father. You became the center of their whole world even before you were born,” he explained with a soft tone.</p><p>Naruto cocked his head to one side as he focused on Hiruzen’s words, <em>‘…my father…center of their world…but, that means…’</em></p><p>“That means you knew my parents! You told me you didn’t know them! Why did you lie to me?!” Naruto yelled. His emotions getting the better of him for the third time, in a single day.</p><p>Naruto’s thunderous response was met with a calm statement spoken sternly, which made Naruto realize that he was talking to the Hokage of Konohagakure and not the person he viewed as his grandfather.</p><p>“Your father made many enemies in his time as a ninja Naruto, so did your mother. I promised them I would protect you and at that time I did what I thought was right. I will tell you about them after you make chunin. Now come with me, I want to show you something.”</p><p>Naruto knew he had no say in the matter. Masking his rage and irritation at the Hokage, he asked, “Where are we going?”</p><p>Hiruzen put his hand on Naruto’s shoulder and Naruto felt chakra course through him. He landed on solid ground, a second later. After collecting himself, he stood up straighter. He turned towards the Hokage, but the man wasn’t looking at Naruto.</p><p>Looking around, the surrounding trees, which would provide decent cover, Naruto absentmindedly thought, and the clearing with a few burns here and there, that looked like someone had used fire jutsu, Naruto guessed they were in one of the training fields inside the village.</p><p>After a few minutes, Naruto followed the Hokage’s gaze to a standard slab of stone, in the center of a square shaped cemented pavement. There were a number of names written on the stone, Naruto noticed.</p><p>Naruto stood silent, as he read a few names, before Hiruzen asked Naruto if he knew what the stone in front of them represented, to which he replied with a negative shake of his head.</p><p>“This is the memorial stone Naruto. The names written here are of those people who were and are considered heroes. Heroes who died saving the village with their lives,”</p><p><em>‘Heroes…who died?’ </em>Naruto’s jaw dropped, he looked wide-eyed at the mention of the purpose of the stone. His body automatically straightened and he lowered his head.</p><p>“You have to understand Naruto many people lost their loved ones in the Kyubi attack and what they fear is the Kyubi getting out again. Taking that anger out on you doesn’t justify their actions and it also doesn’t exempt them from being punished. But they are scared Naruto. Tell me, what you would have done had you been in their place? You too are trying to become Hokage to protect those you hold dear, are you not?”</p><p>Naruto silently nodded his affirmation, not trusting his voice at the moment.</p><p>“Fear makes people do things that cannot be justified, but not your parents. They were some of the bravest people I had the privilege of knowing. They gave their lives to protect you… to protect this village. You want to make them proud of you, right?”</p><p>The mention of his parents had Naruto sniffling again. He choked out a single “Yes” but still kept his head down.</p><p>He didn’t know what to think. His heart was in a turmoil. He felt overjoyed because now he knew that at least his parents had loved him and didn’t leave him to rot just because he housed a demon in his gut but the feeling of betrayal he got when he realized that the Hokage had been lying to him up until now was also prominent.</p><p>“I know you are smart Naruto because no one can paint the Hokage monument wearing orange and still get away with it, in broad daylight and I know that you wear this mask of happiness to show people that there words and jabs don’t hurt you. I want you to rise above this hate Naruto. I can’t help you in most matters without it becoming a case of favoritism. However, I want you to prove to these ignorant people that you are not who they think you are.”</p><p>Naruto’s posture relaxed at once and he raised his head. He saw why everyone respected the Third Hokage, why the man hailed the title of ‘The Professor’. It wasn’t because he knew every technique in the village or his knowledge in the shinobi arts, well that may be a part of it, but it was because he knew how to handle situations where most seasoned shinobi would lose their minds, with careful understanding and wisdom gained throughout his life as a shinobi.</p><p>“Listen to me Naru and listen to me very carefully,” Hiruzen said bending down and holding onto Naruto’s shoulders.</p><p>Naruto gave his undivided attention, to the person in front of him who had seen three shinobi wars, lead two of them, and came out victorious, to the person who was the leader of Konoha, to the person he considered his grandfather. For that moment all the hate for the man in front of him disappeared from his mind just as the Third called him by the nickname that he gave him when Naruto was little.</p><p>Hiruzen placed one of his hands, on Naruto’s chest just above his heart. “You are strong, smart and above all, you have the ‘Will of Fire’. Don’t give up Naru. If you ever feel like quitting, remember the reason why you started fighting in the first place. Make your parents proud Naru, don’t let their deaths be in vain. I believe in you.”</p><p>Naruto kept his lips sealed as his throat burned with a sudden urge to cry. He did not want to cry in front of the Hokage again.</p><p>
  <em>‘Jiji believes in me… my parents had loved me…’</em>
</p><p>Naruto blinked back the tears forming in his eyes. He had the will of fire. He would prove to everyone just how much they have messed up. He would make his parents proud. He would become the best shinobi to ever exist in this world.</p><p>“It’s already dark so let’s go and get some ramen to eat shall we?” Hiruzen asked knowing ramen would cheer up his small charge.</p><p>“YATTAAA… Ramen! Ramen!” Naruto cheered, putting all the information he had received to the back of his mind for a later review and gripped the Hokage's hand and started tugging and dragging them towards the general direction of Ichiraku Ramen stand.</p><p>“Teuchi-san!” Naruto shouted, to bring the attention of the ramen chef towards himself.</p><p>“Naruto-kun, should I bring you your regular?” Teuchi asked smiling at his favorite blond customer, before turning towards the Hokage. “Sandaime-sama what about you?”</p><p>Teuchi and his daughter Ayame had heard about Naruto not passing the graduation exam from other customers and were waiting for him to show up. They had decided to try their very best to cheer up the little blond if he showed even a hint of despair.</p><p>“The usual, please.” Hiruzen answered.</p><p>“Ara Naruto-kun won’t you say hi to me?” Ayame asked.</p><p>“Ayame-neechan! How are you? I haven’t seen you for a week,”</p><p>“That’s because you didn’t come here for a week, you silly boy,” Ayame and Naruto bickered back and forth for some time, then Ayame started telling him about all that’s happened in the week he had not been there. They chatted and ate happily.</p><p>After Hiruzen paid, both he and Naruto left the stand, walking towards Naruto’s apartment.</p><p>“All the best Naruto and before I forget you can start using the academy library by tomorrow and if anyone denies you entrance, come and see me.” Hiruzen said to which Naruto replied with a sharp nod of his head. “Good night Naruto.”</p><p>“Good night Jiji and prepare to give your hat to me cause I will be taking it from you very soon,”</p><p>“I will be waiting for that day Naruto,” Hiruzen said softly and returned to his office to resume the battle with his eternal enemy, namely paperwork.</p><p>Upon reaching his office, Hiruzen sat in his seat and placed his elbows on his desk lacing his fingers in front of him. “Cat” he called.</p><p>The purple-haired kunoichi appeared before him kneeling down, awaiting her orders.</p><p>“Get me every single academy instructor who will teach Naruto’s class in their fourth year and the librarian. I don’t care if they are eating or sleeping, I want each and every one of them in my office in 10 minutes or they can kiss their job goodbye.” he ordered in a low, warning tone, which sent a chill down the kunoichi’s spine.</p><p>“Hai Hokage-sama.” the ANBU replied in a monotone.</p><p>Six and half minutes later, all the fourth-year academy instructors with the librarian were standing in front of Hiruzen, unable to understand why they were called after being dismissed only a few hours earlier. It surely couldn’t be about the team assignments. The Hokage decided that himself with the homeroom teacher so, why everyone had to be present was beyond their understanding.</p><p>“I just saw the results of the graduation exam, congratulations. We have some promising students this coming year. Almost all the clan heirs will be entering their fourth year after a month. I want you all to pay attention and teach them very carefully just like you have before. All of the students who are now in their fourth year must have access to the academy library even during the vacation time.”</p><p>“Sandaime-sama, I apologize for speaking out of turn, but all the students already gain access to the academy library as soon as they enter the academy in their first year.” Iruka said</p><p>“Is that true?” Hiruzen asked, looking pointedly at the librarian.</p><p>“Yes sir. It is true,” he answered.</p><p>“Well this is nice. So, everyone is allowed, you say?” Hiruzen asked again with a casual tone.</p><p>“Yes sir,”</p><p>Hiruzen gave the men standing in front of him a smile, “Very good. I knew you would not disappoint me,”</p><p>Delighted at the praise, the librarian failed to see where the conversation was heading and added “We all encourage every student to ask us for help if they need it and borrow books from the library for further knowledge,”</p><p>“Is Uzumaki Naruto allowed in the library?”</p><p>“Why, no sir! He is most certainly not. That boy….” the librarian stopped talking as the temperature inside the room suddenly dropped and he realized his mistake.</p><p>Without anyone’s notice, the conversation had turned around in just a matter of seconds.</p><p>“That means you lied to me?” Hiruzen asked in a low voice.</p><p>The ANBU present inside the room sat in rigid postures. That low voice could make hardened shinobi run for their lives, these chunin stood no chance. At all.</p><p>The librarian was shaking inside his boots. Lying to the Hokage even about something this trivial could still be considered as treason. He could be executed for his crime.</p><p>“According to this list,” Hiruzen held up a piece of paper, “Uzumaki Naruto is a fourth-year academy student. Then why is he not allowed in the library?”</p><p>“Ano... eto… Hokage-sama… I…” the librarian could not form a single coherent statement.</p><p>“Remove this man from my presence, I will not tolerate being lied to.”</p><p>The man was out of the room, the next second.</p><p>“Now, Iruka-san, I need you to appoint another librarian or all the teachers in the academy can take rotations,” Hiruzen said.</p><p>Iruka, who was staring at the floorboards, already feeling guilty, looked up at the Hokage’s voice and nodded his head readily, not wanting to make the man more mad at them than he already was.</p><p>After that everyone left to their own work but one thing was on everyone’s mind except for Iruka, ‘<em>we shouldn’t mess with that brat anymore’</em>.</p><p>As Iruka walked to his apartment, his thoughts were occupied by a certain loudmouth little blond. Even though he always acted professionally with the boy, he couldn’t help but feel guilty about what had happened. After teaching Naruto for more than two years the boy had wormed his way into Iruka’s heart. He swore to himself that he will help Naruto pass next year. He will try everything in his power to make sure of that.</p><p> </p><p>Naruto laid down on his bed thinking about everything that had happened since this morning. He is the Kyubi jinchuriki. That’s why everyone treats him like he is not even worth the dirt beneath their feet, people think he is the demon itself. But he is not the demon, just it’s jailor. He stood up and took off his nightshirt. He looked intently in the mirror but couldn’t see anything.</p><p>
  <em>‘Since its linked to my chakra, maybe it will become visible if I use chakra,’</em>
</p><p>Naruto channeled chakra through his entire body and the seal became visible. The seal was circular and had a symbol in the center that he had seen on the chunin and jonin flak jackets. He couldn’t understand what the seal meant but if it could hold the most powerful bijuu at bay then it must be pretty powerful, he deduced.</p><p>
  <em>‘If I learn fuinjutsu, then I will become strong too. Jiji said I can use the academy library from tomorrow.”</em>
</p><p>Naruto winced at the idea of studying in the library with one or the other teacher glaring at him at the entire time as if waiting for him to try and do something reckless. He looked back at his reflection, his I-can-handle-anything-no-matter-what-you-throw-at-me mask disappearing in the confines of the four walls of his house. He knew he wasn’t some genius, so he had had to settle for the next best thing. Hard work.</p><p>Unconsciously Naruto squared his shoulders, stood a little straighter as he repeated to himself again and again, that his parents had loved him. He liked to believe they were in some beautiful paradise, as a reward for their bravery, looking after at him.</p><p>He moved his hand across the seal on his stomach as he thought, <em>‘So what if no one else loves me? Who cares? My parents had loved me and that’s what matters. I will not let them down. They gave up their lives, fighting for this village and I will not do anything that will ruin their name.’</em></p><p>Naruto took a deep breath and released it slowly. Spurred by the feeling of making his parents proud and protecting what they loved, what he loves, with all his heart; Naruto decided to do the best of his abilities. He would take any chance granted to him. If the academy library was the only place he could use right now, than that is what he will do.</p><p> </p><p>The next morning, Naruto woke up before dawn. Feeling refreshed from a good night’s rest he got out of bed, finished his morning routine and settled down for breakfast.</p><p>
  <em>‘Ahh… ramen will always be the food of the gods.’</em>
</p><p>Naruto quickly put on his casual everyday clothes which consisted of an orange-blue jacket over a black mesh undershirt with a white collar, a white swirl with a tassel on the left side, and a similar swirl in red on his back. He narrowed his eyes at the swirl.</p><p>
  <em>‘That swirl looks similar to the swirl in the center of the seal on my stomach and the one on every Konoha chunin and jonin vests. Maybe it means something important. I should find out more about this symbol. How I never managed to notice this resemblance, I’ll never know.’</em>
</p><p>Half an hour later, Naruto stood in front of the academy contemplating whether to go inside or not. He recalled the Hokage’s words, on how he had the ‘Will of Fire’, so he supposed that he could not act like a coward now. However, in some corner of his mind, he wondered how much of the Hokage’s words he should believe in, since the old man had felt no qualms about lying to Naruto for years.</p><p>Naruto shook his head slightly, to rid himself of such thoughts, and entered the academy. He saw Iruka sitting at the place of normal librarian and released a sigh of relief, at least he will be able to enter the academy today and not get thrown at first sight. He vehemently made his way over and entered as quietly as possible. He watched Iruka very closely for any sign of opposition on him being here but was left stunned.</p><p>Naruto’s brows slightly scrunched as he couldn’t understand why Iruka made a relieved kind of face when he saw Naruto. <em>‘</em><em>Did he expect me to come here today?’</em></p><p>“Ohayo Naruto-kun. Are you here to study?” Iruka asked.</p><p>Naruto’s eyes widened upon sensing the kindness in his teacher’s voice and he gradually nodded, still in a daze.</p><p>“Well I am here to help if you need any,” Iruka voiced with a small smile on his face.</p><p>Naruto hurried inside the library, looking for first-year books. He still couldn’t get ahold of the fact that Iruka-sensei smiled at him and told him that he would help him.</p><p>
  <em>‘Is this a trick? Is he trying to lull me into a false sense of security and then attack when my guard is down? No.…he wouldn’t do that. He has always treated me fairly. Maybe he actually wants to help me. Jiji must have said something to the teachers last night. Oh gods… this is so troublesome. Why am I thinking like Shikamaru now? Ughh… I am going to go crazy before I even graduate.’</em>
</p><p>Naruto eventually found the first-year books and sat down on the reading table. He took out an empty scroll for writing notes and started to read. After an hour or two of reading, he still couldn’t understand some of the words so he decided to ask Iruka for help.</p><p>“Iruka-sensei, can you help me with this chapter?” he asked in a small voice.</p><p>Iruka again smiled at Naruto and gave his affirmation to the blond’s question. He went to sit beside Naruto at the reading table and took the book from the boy’s hands.</p><p>“I don’t understand the meaning of some words and what is written in some of the paragraphs,” Naruto said, a small tinge of red tinting his cheeks.</p><p>“Naruto, have you always had trouble reading?” Iruka asked to which Naruto nodded and turned completely red.</p><p>Iruka’s brows furrowed as he glared at the book in Naruto’s hands, “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”</p><p>“I never had anyone to help me at home and the teachers here don’t like me so I didn’t think anyone would help me,” Naruto answered in a monotone completely masking his feelings since he could practically hear the annoyance in Iruka’s voice.</p><p>“Well I am here to help you. So, if you have any problem you come and ask me okay?”</p><p>Naruto tightened his fist around the brush he had in his hand as he nodded and then both he and Iruka got to work.</p><p>Iruka helped him read and write all the first-year material. Upon getting some help Naruto realized that studying from a book was not his forte but it certainly helped as now he could understand most of the things Iruka had lectured him on before. He fussed over his handwriting. <em>‘Why can’t it become more readable?’</em></p><p>“Naruto, why don’t we leave it at that today?” Iruka asked, kindly. “I will give you some homework which you will show to me tomorrow, here at 6 AM sharp okay?”</p><p>“Aww… homework, I thought I wouldn’t have to do that during vacation,” Naruto whined and turned to look at the clock. ‘<em>Woah… I studied for more than 6 hours straight. This must really be a record for me.’</em></p><p>“Naruto you are already behind your peers, we have to get you back on your feet and we only have two weeks so, no whining,” Iruka said in a tone that Naruto recognized as his no-nonsense teacher tone. Iruka used it a lot on him and other students during his lectures.</p><p>Naruto had gotten quite comfortable while studying with Iruka. He had no idea why the man was suddenly all helping, but he would take whatever he could get. This was the first time someone had ever done something nice for him, Naruto bend his head and slightly smiled to himself.</p><p>“Why don’t we go to Ichiraku ramen for lunch then we will work on your practical skills. Is that okay with you?” Iruka asked.</p><p>“Wao Iruka-sensei, that’s an awesome idea! Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,” Naruto said, jumping excitedly but then he stopped all of a sudden, “but… do you really want to go with me?”</p><p>Naruto remembered all the comments and sneers thrown his way, and he didn’t want anyone to suffer through that, specially the person who was being kind to him.</p><p>“Of course, I do.” Iruka answered firmly and steered Naruto towards the Ichiraku ramen stand.</p><p>After eating their fill, they went back to academy training ground where Iruka started Naruto with the basic katas of taijutsu. Iruka corrected Naruto every other minute.</p><p>Naruto mulled over the fact that his stance must be horribly wrong if he needed so many corrections. <em>‘Is that why I lost so many times during the academy spars? But this is how Mizuki-sensei taught me. I will think about this later. Right now, I need to get my stance straight. There is no use in crying over spilt milk.’</em></p><p>With renewed determination, Naruto paid all his attention to Iruka’s instructions.</p><p>At some time in the evening, after exhausting himself to the point of passing out, Naruto laid down seeing the reddish-orange hue in the atmosphere and feeling the cool air flowing around.</p><p>“Naruto, who taught you the basics of taijutsu?” Iruka asked, lying beside Naruto.</p><p>“Mizuki-sensei,”</p><p>
  <em>‘He was being so nice about it. He even taught me after classes, so why would he teach me wrong?’</em>
</p><p>Naruto looked at Iruka trying to figure out if his chain of thoughts matched Iruka’s. The look on his teacher’s face told Naruto everything. <em>‘Mizuki-sensei taught me wrong on purpose. Well this is not the first time someone has tried to mess with my education.’</em></p><p>“Naruto, do you always eat ramen?” Iruka asked.</p><p>Naruto could see that Iruka was trying to change the topic so he put a halt on his thoughts when he felt Iruka staring back at him.</p><p>Naruto’s shoulder’s sagged unconsciously, he turned back to look at the sky, “Not always but well… the shopkeepers don’t sell me stuff and even if they do its mostly rotten and overpriced, ramen is the only thing I get at normal price. So, I don’t really have a choice,”</p><p>Naruto jumped as Iruka suddenly sat up. He inwardly cringed at his teacher’s furious expression and wondered whether it was directed at him or the general populace of Konoha he spoke about. Naruto somewhat leaned away when Iruka turned to him and spoke with a smile. The sudden change of attitude scared him.</p><p>
  <em>‘He is scary….’</em>
</p><p>“Naruto let’s go shopping tomorrow. I couldn’t help but notice that you are very malnourished and your short stature might be due to your lack of necessary diet. I’ll get you some cookbooks too. If you keep eating ramen only, you will stay a chibi forever,”</p><p>A tick mark appeared on Naruto’s forehead and he yelled “I am not a chibi, I just haven’t hit my growth spurt yet,”</p><p>Iruka laughed and ruffled Naruto’s blond locks, Naruto stiffened slightly before relaxing at the physical contact. People moved out of his way as if he were the plaque, so being touched, by the other person’s own free will was a new experience to him. Naruto gave Iruka an ear to ear grin, to show his agreement.</p><p> </p><p>The next day, as promised, Iruka took Naruto shopping after their morning study session and Naruto saw the looks people were giving them but he blatantly ignored everyone, now used to this sort of behavior.</p><p>Iruka settled one hand on Naruto’s shoulder and squeezed lightly, Naruto went wide-eyed at his teacher’s silent gesture for support. He looked up and saw Iruka glaring at people who were looking at Naruto with utter hate in their eyes.</p><p>The teacher student duo went inside a grocery store and the man sitting behind the counter smiled at Iruka but the man’s smile disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, when he took in the little blond figure.</p><p>Naruto was able to finish their shopping without much mishap after Iruka yelled at someone who tried to sell Naruto rotten stuff.</p><p>Iruka taught Naruto everything that had already been taught in the previous three years in two weeks, from reading and writing properly to chakra control exercises and everything in between.</p><p>Naruto, after three days of no luck in progressing in chakra control, snapped. After a long lecture from Iruka, it registered in his brain that his poor control was because he had a lot of chakra to begin with. His chakra pools could even rival that of the Hokage’s and the damn demon in his gut was not helping. But he was never the one to back down from a challenge, so he spent the majority of his time trying to stick a leaf to his forehead. He had no free time to spend on anything other than completing the academy work.</p><p>When Naruto realized that Iruka could only teach him for the first two weeks, because after that he had to start working at the academy again to get all the stuff ready for the next year, Naruto dedicated all his time to learn from Iruka as much as possible.</p><p> </p><p>Naruto borrowed fourth-year books from the library and started reading the theory again after the two-week study/training session. Since now he could read and write without much problem, he decided to read the theory himself because he knew that the teachers bar Iruka would not teach him anything. He couldn’t ask Iruka for help in fourth-year material because that would be favoritism. He didn’t want to be the cause of distress for the other man, who now Naruto respected.  So, he sat down on his bed and opened the book on three basic ninjutsu that are required to graduate from the academy and started reading.</p><p>When Naruto read the theory on henge no jutsu, to say he was shocked would be an understatement.</p><p><em>‘I can’t believe I am this stupid. No wonder I am the dead last of the class.’ </em>Naruto thought as he shook his head. <em>‘Past is past. I won’t be the dead last now. But, if the civilian council knew that ‘the demon brat’ is learning, they will do anything in their power to stop it. Then maybe I should pretend to be the dead last. Iruka-sensei would not like it if I did that. He helped me a lot in these past two weeks. I can’t just let all his hard work go to waste.’</em></p><p>Still contemplating what to do, Naruto changed into his nightclothes and looked around his small apartment. Many books and scrolls were strewn all around his bed. There were dirty dishes in the sink which were just begging to be cleaned if the flies around them were any indication.</p><p>Reluctantly, Naruto made his way to the sink, swatting away the damn pests in the process and started on the dishes.</p><p>After doing the dishes and organizing the papers, which were uncharacteristically scattered around the room, in a proper pile. He had learned from Iruka that clean surroundings will only help him in concentrating on his studies. He laid down on the bed and covered himself with his green comforter as he stared at the ceiling trying to think up of a solution.</p><p><em>‘I shouldn’t pretend to be the dead last, that would not only hurt Iruka-sensei but there may also be a chance that I will be kicked out of the academy if I failed again. Na, na, na, I can’t risk failing again. Okay... I will stay somewhere in the middle, an average student. That is the most appropriate solution I can come up with. Whatever happens now happens. I will deal with it.’</em> Nodding to himself, with that thought in mind Naruto went to sleep.</p><p> </p><p>Upon waking, Naruto had no idea what to do. Since Iruka was busy with the academy work and couldn’t help him, Naruto had no one to guide him. He slowly got out of bed and dragged himself to his bathroom.</p><p>After breakfast, Naruto roamed outside looking for a training ground. He chose training ground three, cause that was pretty far from the village center, and got to work.</p><p>Naruto went through various taijutsu katas and exercises. Then he tried the chakra control exercises, which he still couldn’t do properly, after that he ran laps around the training ground. It was some time in the afternoon when he decided to stop. With the sun blazing above, he sat down for a few minutes to gather his breath, closing his eyes in the process. He took out a bottle of water and gulped its content hungrily.</p><p>Naruto went back home to grab himself some lunch. His arms and legs had turned jelly by the time he reached home. Once he pushed some food down his throat, he sat down on the floor, tucking his legs under himself, he opened the fourth year-book on the history of Konoha and started reading.</p><p>Naruto followed the same routine of reading the fourth-year material and strengthening his stamina. He didn’t talk to anyone except for Iruka and the Ichiraku ramen stand owners, who came to check upon him. Naruto felt pleased with the way he was growing but he was frustrated over his lack of chakra control which was still very poor.</p><p>Now with only a week left, Naruto was at a loss, as he still couldn’t do the academy bunshin and taijutsu practice since he had no on to spar with. Kawarimi and henge, he had no trouble with. It was the simple ‘bunshin no jutsu’ that was driving him crazy.</p><p>He was sitting inside his house after the morning exercises when an idea occurred to him, <em>‘I should use henge to get inside the central library, I can find more help there.’</em></p><p>With new destination set in mind, Naruto left for the central library. He jumped in a nearby alley and henged himself to look like a normal dark-haired, brown-eyed chunin. He hid his three whiskers like birthmarks that were on both of his cheeks and casually strolled inside the library giving the librarian a small smile. Naruto held his breath and tried to act as casual as he could. He hoped to high heavens that no one would recognize his ruse.</p><p>Naruto looked around the shelves cautiously. Genin, Chunin, Jonin, and restricted section which was only for the elite Jonin, ANBU, and the Hokage was on the first floor, they only consisted of taijutsu, genjutsu and ninjutsu for the shinobi forces. Then on the second floor there were Clans in Konoha, History, Geography, Politics, and a variety of non-elemental techniques like kenjutsu and fuinjutsu.</p><p>The Clans in Konoha section piqued at Naruto’s interests. He walked up the stairs and looked around to see if anyone was following him. Finding no one, Naruto walked inside the section. He took a book called ‘Overview of Clans in Konoha’ and sat down behind the section wall, to hide himself from plain sight. He had just started reading the book when he heard a voice. He freaked out at first but managed to calm himself down just enough so that he could sneak out. However, the voice pulled at his attention, so he sat down to listen, if only for a few minutes.</p><p>“So did Shikaku-san say anything?” one voice said.</p><p><em>‘His voice sounds kinda deep, must be a male,’</em> Naruto mused.</p><p>“Shikaku-san, the Jonin commander?” another voice asked.</p><p>“Seriously? How many shinobi do you know in our forces with the name Shikaku? Of course, I am talking about Nara Shikaku, the Jonin commander of Konoha,” the first voice retorted.</p><p>“Don’t you think it’s not fair to ask me for some gossip on my clan leader’s family? You know I can’t talk about it,” the voice sounded entirely bored.</p><p>“Aww man, it’s not like I am going to tell anybody. I am just asking if he said anything about his son Shikamaru’s ranking in the academy. I thought he would be pissed,”</p><p>“Whatever, if you have found what you needed let’s just go. This entire thing is too tiring.”</p><p>With that statement Naruto was left to his own thoughts<em>. ‘So Shikamaru is the son of the Jonin commander and Nara clan leader. Now that’s some news. He is friends with Ino and Choji. Are they clan heirs too?’</em></p><p>Naruto soon left the building. He was still thinking about his classmates being clan heirs. He didn’t know anything about that.</p><p>To know more about his classmates, he decided to roam around the village in his new henge. After sundown Naruto made his way back to his home and dropped the henge. He suddenly felt drained. Maintaining a henge for so long took a toll on his body.</p><p>Another week went by similarly with Naruto trying to stick a leaf to his body parts and physical exercising in the morning and information gathering and reading in the evening. Naruto had learnt as it turns out, shinobi talked about a lot of mundane things after a mission. He now knew a lot about the clans inside the village, where they lived, who lead them, who were the clan heirs, and their specific bloodline limits. He had first learned about the word ‘bloodline limit’ in the book about clan specialties.</p><p><em>‘I was so busy learning about all the clans inside the village, that I forgot to find out about my own clan. I know Uzumaki clan helped in founding Konoha, that much was in the history lesson. But where are they now? Are they even alive? Do they know about me?’</em> these thoughts plagued Naruto’s mind until he went to sleep, all the activities done throughout the day catching up to him.</p><p>Naruto woke up to the sun shining down on his face. He had forgotten to close the blinds before going to sleep. He halfheartedly completed his morning routine with a breakfast comprised of an omelet, a few pieces of beacon, sprouts, nuts, and an apple with a full glass of milk. He wore his new clothes that he bought under a henge.</p><p>
  <em>‘I am so glad Iruka-sensei took me shopping, that cookbook is really wonderful and I have grown a bit taller too.’</em>
</p><p>Naruto took a glance at the mirror. His yellow-blond spiky hair really brought out his blue eyes. He took off his green goggles and placed them on the table. <em>‘I don’t need to wear it now. I am done dragging attention towards myself.’</em></p><p>Naruto wore a navy-blue jacket with orange sleeves and orange stripes around the collar and pockets, which was left unzipped with a black undershirt, black pants strapped to blue flat shinobi sandals with white tape. He gave himself a thumbs up and left for the academy.</p><p>Naruto unconsciously bounced his knee up and down as he looked out the window. That’s when Shikamaru came in with Choji and looked at Naruto from head to toe, he sat down next to Naruto folding his hands on the desk and laying his head down.</p><p>“What the hell?? What happened to you Uzumaki?” Shikamaru asked in a bored tone, but Naruto knew him very well, there was a slight amusement in his voice.</p><p>
  <em>‘Nara Shikamaru, the Nara clan heir, only son of the Nara clan-head and Jounin commander of Konoha, Nara Shikaku. With IQ of over 200, he is a typical Nara, smart and lazy.’ </em>
</p><p>“Nothing, I just thought that this jacket looked really cool,” Naruto answered in an equally bored tone, completely hiding the fact the he had henged himself into someone else to buy clothes and other daily necessities.</p><p>After he read the theory of henge no jutsu, he started using it to buy stuff in an effort to save his wallet, gama-chan. <em>‘I can’t believe that I didn’t realize it until I read the thing myself. I have been using it for the past year to get out of a pinch by turning into a naked girl, when I could have just turned into someone else. Oh Kami! I am so stupid!’</em></p><p>“So troublesome,” Shikamaru replied, breaking Naruto’s mental rant on himself. “You have changed in these past few weeks… this is troublesome,”</p><p>Naruto gave a small laugh, “You think so?” he asked, schooling his features into a lazy grin.</p><p>“You look nice Naruto,” Choji said, though his voice sounded muffed with all the chips crammed inside his mouth.</p><p>“Thanks, Choji” Naruto replied, wondering how the boy had not choked yet.</p><p>
  <em>‘Akimichi Choji, the Akimichi clan heir, only son of the Akimichi clan head, Akimichi Choza. He is kind, polite, and above all very caring. He is easily the most physically strong student in our entire year,’</em>
</p><p>Shikamaru stared at Naruto for a moment then went back to sleep after muttering his signature “troublesome” again.</p><p>Naruto, aware of the fact that Shikamaru is cleverer than he sounds, decided to act carefully around the boy or he would be found out sooner rather than later.</p><p>Naruto shook his head and went back to his musings about his training regime. With the academy starting again, he would have a lot less free time now. He had not talked to the Hokage after that day. He couldn’t figure out how to approach the man. Even though the Hokage had lied to him but, Naruto was pushing away the only family he had.</p><p>Naruto resolved to check out the library for physical conditioning for genin, just as a ruckus was heard outside the classroom. He turned around to find Sasuke entering the class with a horde of girls around him, as usual.</p><p>
  <em>‘Uchiha Sasuke, the sole survivor of the Uchiha massacre that occurred four years ago, he is now the Uchiha heir and strongest, if not the smartest, one in their entire year, the top student. He is nothing but a pampered prince, albeit a strong one, but still pampered.’</em>
</p><p>Naruto was again broken out of his thoughts by a series of shrill screeches. He winced and looked for the source of the horrendous sound. It was Sakura and Ino. They were yelling at someone for sitting next to Sasuke. A month full of silent training had left him with quite sensitive ears. He narrowed his eyes slightly at the girls.</p><p>
  <em>‘Haruno Sakura, a civilian born training to be a ninja, a bookworm with very less chakra reserves. A hopeless fangirl. The only reason she is top kunoichi is because paper tests weigh more marks than practical tests.’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘Yamanaka Ino, the Yamanaka clan heiress, only daughter of the Yamanaka clan-head and leader of the Analysis Team in the village’s Intelligence Division, Yamanaka Inoichi. She is a stupid fangirl, who doesn’t want to acknowledge the cruel side of the shinobi world, living inside her own fantasy. Her chakra reverses are poor too.’</em>
</p><p>Finally, Iruka came in and ordered everyone to sit down with his big head jutsu. Sakura, blushing bright red, hurried up the stairs and sat down behind Sasuke which was coincidently in front of Naruto. He was surprised to see that a month ago he would have given anything to talk to the girl, but now… he wasn’t interested, at all. He figured that the past few weeks he had been trying to learn how to act properly as a ninja-in-training so he didn’t have time to act like a child his age and now looking at Sakura and Ino only made him realize that these girls will not survive in this harsh shinobi world.</p><p>
  <em>‘Both of them will get themselves killed on their first mission that is if they manage to pass the genin exam. But with Ino being the clan heiress, she will be passed no matter what.’</em>
</p><p>Naruto cut his chain of thoughts to focus on Iruka’s voice. He paid attention for the first few minutes when Iruka told them that they would have to pass a written test, a taijutsu test, and finally the three basic ninjutsu that were henge, bunshin and kawarimi to pass the graduation test and become a genin. He tuned out Iruka since he had already learned that lesson.</p><p>Naruto was looking out the window when he felt someone’s eyes on him. He curiously checked the entire classroom, only to find that he was being stared at by none other than Hinata. She turned away just as their eyes met and Naruto looked as Shino and Kiba one after another turned their heads towards him but he stubbornly twisted to look out the window lost in his own thoughts.</p><p>
  <em>‘Hyuga Hinata, the heiress of the famed Hyuga clan, eldest daughter of the Hyuga clan-head Hyuga Hiashi. She is really shy and timid, a complete opposite of Hyuga clan members. From what I have seen and heard about her, she is a strong person. She just needs someone who believes in her. If not for her kind nature she would have easily been the top kunoichi.’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘Aburame Shino, the Aburame clan heir, the only son of the Aburame clan head, Aburame Shibi. He is smart and likes to keep to himself, like all other Aburame clan members.’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘Inuzuka Kiba, son of the Inuzuka clan head, Inuzuka Tsume. The Inuzuka clan heiress is his elder sister, Inuzuka Hana. He is boisterous, short-tempered and impulsive. Though the guy is absolutely loyal to the village, he is an utter idiot.’</em>
</p><p>After academy hours were over, Naruto borrowed a book for his physical exercises and left for training ground three. It had become a safe haven for him. Not many people practiced there.</p><p>He sat under the shade of a tree and looked up at the sky. He was weighing his pros and cons of meeting with the Hokage. <em>‘Should I trust him? He lied to me, for years. Maybe I should give him another chance, at least for my own good. Because I need someone’s guidance.’</em></p><p>Naruto stood up and made his way to the Hokage tower. Upon reaching the Hokage’s office, he hesitated at first but knocked on the door nonetheless. He entered after hearing a small ‘come in’. He saw that the Hokage was sitting patiently behind his desk as if waiting for him to make the first move.</p><p>“Hokage-sama,” Naruto said.</p><p>Hiruzen winced at the formal tone and asked, “Yes Naruto, what can I do for you?”</p><p>“Can we talk in private, Hokage-sama?”</p><p>The Hokage only nodded at his question.</p><p>After a few moments Naruto said, “There is no point in delaying this any further, so I’ll ask you straightforward. Why did you lie to me for all those years? Did you not trust me? Did you think I will release the beast, if I knew about it?” looking pointedly at the wizened Hokage before him. Sadness, hurt, and betrayal rolling off of him in waves. He clenched his fists so hard; the nails were digging into his palm strong enough to leave marks.</p><p>Hiruzen shook his head and replied in a calm tone, “No Naruto. I told you that day, all I wanted was for you to have a happy childhood with friends,”</p><p>“For me to have a happy childhood, with people this dumb that they can’t even differentiate between a scroll and a kunai, could only be achieved in a dream Hokage-sama, not in reality. Almost everyone knew about my burden except for me, why is that Hokage-sama?”</p><p>“When I saw that people were refusing to accept you as the hero you are, for keeping the Kyubi at bay, protecting everyone day and night. I released a decree to forbid anyone who knew about the Kyubi to reveal the information to you or anyone, so that the younger generation would not know and treat you differently,”</p><p>“Well that worked out certainly well. Didn’t it, Hokage-sama?” Naruto asked in a clipped tone, before lowering his head and muttering, “If I had known, then at least I could have been able to console myself when those stupid villagers beat me senseless or when I wasn’t allowed to enter public places. I could have told myself that it isn’t my fault. I could have… done something to make it better, to make the pain stop,”</p><p>Naruto heard the Hokage move and looked up, blinking rapidly to stop the tears that were threatening to escape his eyes, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He saw guilt flashing in the Hokage’s eyes.</p><p>“I am sorry Naruto. I tried to protect you. I really did. But I am an old man, there is nothing I can do now but plead for your forgiveness,”</p><p>“It hurts Jiji, it hurts. I tried to be angry at you, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t push away the only family I have left,” Naruto murmured trying to curl in on himself. He had called the Hokage, ‘grandfather’ again, after four weeks. He had not called the Hokage that, not even in the privacy of his own thoughts.</p><p>“I know Naruto, I know. I am really sorry.”</p><p>Naruto looked into the Hokage’s eyes upon hearing the sincere apology laced with guilt and hurt. He wrapped his arms around the Hokage, burying his face in the familiar red robes.</p><p>After some time, they settled on the couch nearby with Naruto narrating his past month’s training and his dilemma on setting a training schedule for himself. Though, he didn’t tell the Hokage anything about his last week’s afternoon adventures. Every shinobi was entitled to their own secrets. He figured the Hokage would not be happy with him going around in a henge and listening in on other’s conversations. He usually roamed around the gossiping chunin because he didn’t trust his henge to be strong enough to fool a jounin.</p><p>“So Jiji, will you please help me? I have no idea on how to set a training regime,” Naruto said.</p><p>“Of course, I will Naruto, but let it be our little secret okay?”</p><p>Naruto exclaimed in agreement.</p><p>Naruto then, with the Hokage’s help, decided his training routine for the next month. It consisted of running 10 laps around training ground three, then 100 push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, with 60 seconds rest after each set and 5 minutes rest after each exercise. Then some stretching exercises before going to the academy. After the academy Naruto would work on his chakra control and complete his homework. They would change his training after every month according to the way his body responded to it.</p><p>In the first week, Naruto had a lot of trouble keeping up with the physical exercises. He would be so tired upon reaching the academy that he would go to sleep rather than listen to the lectures. When Mizuki-sensei caught him sleeping in the class, he embarrassed Naruto in front of everyone.</p><p>The second week passed by without much problem, with Naruto keeping up in the classes due to his former study on fourth-year material.</p><p>During their first taijutsu match, Naruto as usual won his bouts with the civilians without showing much of his skills. Though he lost to Sasuke after that. He saw that Shikamaru was looking at him with a confused expression on his face and Mizuki-sensei was glaring at him.</p><p>Throughout the third week Naruto’s body had almost gotten used to his morning routine, almost being the keyword. Naruto finally managed to stick a leaf to his feet, where it was most difficult. He then read the book on ‘Chakra Control for Genin’ and started on the tree-climbing exercise.</p><p>When the fourth week was almost over, Naruto was quickly losing his patience because he still couldn’t reach halfway up the tree. He now only had two days left. Frustrated, Naruto made his way to the memorial stone, and sat down in front of it, just a few feet away. He read the names written on it when a name suddenly caught his attention.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <span class="u">Uzumaki Kushina</span>
  </strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Chapter 2   --   Life Without Parents is like Fighting a War Without Weapons</strong>
</p>
<p>Naruto stood up and ran towards the memorial stone faster than what could be considered his normal speed. He read the name over and over again, even though he knew that there was no way this name would ever leave his memory.</p>
<p>He finally found someone else of the Uzumaki clan.</p>
<p>Naruto read all the names written on the memorial stone but could only find two Uzumaki.</p>
<p>Uzumaki Mito and Uzumaki Kushina.</p>
<p>Naruto knew Mito-sama was the First Hokage’s wife. He had read about her when he was reading about the previous Hokage’s. He remembered Jiji telling him that both of his parents had been powerful and feared shinobi who died protecting the village<em>.</em></p>
<p>
  <em>‘If they lost their lives in service of Konoha then their names must be on the memorial stone. Is Uzumaki Kushina my mother?’</em>
</p>
<p>Naruto couldn’t sleep that night.</p>
<p>No matter how many times he changed his position, he reached till 4650 in counting but sleep eluded him anyways. He tried not to hold too many hopes but still finding his parents name was a big deal to him, even though he had yet to confirm if Uzumaki Kushina was his mother’s name or not. He thought about asking the Hokage or someone else who knew of that person.</p>
<p>Naruto scrunched his nose unconsciously, <em>‘Knowing Jiji, he would never tell me anything about my parents.’</em></p>
<p>As well as tricking the ‘God of Shinobi’ also known as ‘The Professor’ was out of the question for him. So, when Naruto reached the academy the next day, he still hadn’t figured out how he was going to find out about his parentage or who to ask for. He had noticed, on his evening snooping strolls, that people in Konoha generally avoided the topic about the Uzumaki, though he had no idea why.</p>
<p>Naruto had so many questions with no answers, he felt excited yet wearied. He hadn’t been able to pay attention during his morning routine and messed up a few times. Adrenaline coursed through his body despite the soreness in his muscles, and this was enough to put him in a foul mood.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Naruto was deep in his thoughts when he heard Sakura and Ino fighting on who reached the class first. He sighed; he had grudgingly accepted this as a part of everyday drama pertaining the Uchiha brat but he would rather not subject his ears to such racket every single day.</p>
<p>Naruto, already irritated, remained at the staircase since the girls were blocking his way up. Narrowing his eyes, Naruto wondered why didn’t he enter through the back door. Though the screaming banshees were not helping his head, he calmly started, “Sakura-san-”</p>
<p>“NO baka Naruto. I am NOT going on a date with you. I will never go on a date with a clanless loser like you!” Sakura yelled delivering a punch to Naruto’s head.</p>
<p>//baka = stupid</p>
<p>Even though Naruto had seen the punch coming, he was too stunned to move out of the way.</p>
<p>Sakura was on her way towards Sasuke’s seat when Naruto hissed, “Stop” halting her steps. He knew how much venom was laced in his voice.</p>
<p>The entire class was quiet, Naruto noticed. He turned to look at Sakura in the eyes. He clenched his fists tightly, to keep a tight leash on his anger but looking at Sakura’s annoyed and confused expression he felt even angrier.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘This girl. Who the hell does she think she is? I was just going to ask her to move. I can’t believe I was ever attracted to her!’</em>
</p>
<p>Pressing his lips in a hard line, Naruto took a step forward, however, before he could say anything Iruka-sensei came in. Glancing at his teacher, Naruto’s eye’s widened. He drew in a sharp breath, when the sudden realization of what he was going to do dawned on him.</p>
<p>“What is going on in here?” Iruka asked.</p>
<p>“Nothing sensei,” Naruto spoke up before Sakura could. He quickly backpaddled and sat down in the last row of the classroom. He hoped no one had seen his minuscule action, or even if they had, they thought nothing about it. He shuddered at the idea of what would happen to him, should anyone from the civilian council came to know of today’s events.</p>
<p>Naruto took in deep breaths to calm himself, <em>‘I am going to have to be more careful. She is not worth it Naruto, calm down, we have much more important things to do.’</em></p>
<p>----</p>
<p>During the academy break Naruto went to talk to the Hokage, he was getting impatient. He figured, he would handle this talk head-on and deal with the consequences later.</p>
<p>“Jiji can we talk?” Naruto asked on entering the Hokage’s office, it was mostly barging, but who cares?</p>
<p>The first thing Naruto saw was, another shinobi stood in front of the Hokage’s desk.</p>
<p>The man looked positively bored. His entire aura screamed nonchalance. He was standing in a slouched position with both of his hands in the pants pockets of his standard jounin attire. It consisted of a dark blue long-sleeved shirt and pants strapped to blue flat sandals with white tape and the green Konoha flak jacket. He also wore fingerless gloves with metal plates on the back. Though his most distinguishable features were his spiky silver hair which stood up slightly oriented to the left, defying gravity itself, the face mask he wore covered half of his face and the Konoha headband was slanted to cover the left eye.</p>
<p>Naruto was brought out of his observations when he heard the Hokage speak to him.</p>
<p>“Sure Naruto. What is the matter?”</p>
<p>Naruto looked at the masked shinobi first then again at the Hokage, unsure if he should ask such a question in front of someone else. He saw the Hokage nod slightly.</p>
<p>“You told me that you would tell me about my parents after I make chunin right?” Naruto asked in a soft tone, lowering his voice to a whisper.</p>
<p>“Yes” the Hokage sighed.</p>
<p>“Will you at least tell me whose last name was Uzumaki?”</p>
<p>“Naruto… why are you asking me this?”</p>
<p>“Will you? Or will you not? Give me a straight answer Jiji,” Naruto requested.</p>
<p>“No, I won’t. Get back to the academy Naruto, your lunch is about to end.” the Hokage answered in a stern tone.</p>
<p>“Hai. Thank you for your time,” Naruto said and got out of the room, after bowing to both the shinobi inside the room, and without sparing another glance at the Hokage.</p>
<p>Naruto kept thinking about the Hokage’s insistence of not answering any of his questions, even something as simple as his last name, and what that actually meant. He could not understand, no matter how hard he tried, why his parents’ identity was such a secret. Specially to him, their son. Sometimes Naruto felt like yelling at the Hokage.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>After the academy was over Naruto went straight to the memorial stone but somebody else had already beat him to the position.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘It’s that masked shinobi I saw in Jiji’s office. What is he doing here? He has two-third of his face covered. Seriously? How does this guy fight with one eye?’</em>
</p>
<p>“Hey” the silver haired jounin spoke in a casual tone.</p>
<p>“Hello” Naruto replied politely. <em>‘People don’t usually speak to me first. Then why is this guy talking to me? Does he not know who I am? Or at least what I carry?’</em></p>
<p>Naruto turned to look at the memorial stone opting for silence just like his companion.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘Will I ever know who my parents are? I doubt the Hokage will tell me even after I make chunin.’</em>
</p>
<p>Naruto gave the man next to him another look over,<em> ‘He must be a high ranking shinobi, seeing as the Hokage let me ask about my parents in front of him. Does he know who they were or maybe their names? Even if he does… will he tell me?’</em></p>
<p>“Aren’t you an academy student?” the guy asked.</p>
<p>Naruto snapped out his thoughts and replied with a question of his own. He turned away, wishing the man hadn’t noticed Naruto staring at him.</p>
<p>“So, what of it?”</p>
<p>“Nothing… it’s almost sundown, shouldn’t you go back now?”</p>
<p>“And go where exactly?”</p>
<p>“The place where people usually return at the end of the day, home.” the guy said, trying to be sarcastic.</p>
<p>“Shouldn’t you?” Naruto retorted. <em>‘This guy is annoying.’</em></p>
<p>“What? Go home?” the guy enquired looking directly at Naruto.</p>
<p>Naruto just nodded. He turned to look at the older man when he heard a slight chuckle. He was utterly surprised to have a civil conversation with the older shinobi. “Who exactly are you?” he asked.</p>
<p>“Name’s Hatake Kakashi, I am a jounin.” the guy – Kakashi – said, “What’s your name?”</p>
<p>“Seeing that you are a jounin, I am pretty sure you know Hatake-san.” Naruto replied, looking straight in the jounin’s lone dark grey eye. “Now what I wanna know, is why are you talking to me? Do you not know <strong>who</strong> I am? Wait… let me rephrase that question. Do you not know <strong>what</strong> I am?”</p>
<p>“I do” Kakashi replied in an indifferent tone.</p>
<p>“Let’s cut to chase Hatake-san,” Naruto said turning back to look at the memorial stone. “Which one of my parents had the Uzumaki last name?”</p>
<p>“Your Mother”</p>
<p>Just as Naruto heard Kakashi answer, his eyes sought out the name which was now probably engraved in his heart.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘Uzumaki Kushina… there is a high chance that this might be my mother’s name. There is no Uzumaki name on the memorial stone other than that. My Mother, what do I do now? How do I confirm it? Will he tell me if I ask directly?’</em>
</p>
<p>Naruto pressed his lips in a tight line. He felt elated to finally know of his mother’s name, but not being able to confirm his mother’s identity was causing him distress. He swallowed once. Twice. Third time.</p>
<p>After composing himself, Naruto turned to look at Kakashi properly.</p>
<p>“I am pretty sure that you can’t answer me, if I ask you to tell me my parent’s names directly Kakashi-san,” Naruto stated calmly, though on the inside he was anything except calm.</p>
<p>“I don’t have that liberty, correct.”</p>
<p>“Then why did you tell me about my mother?” Naruto asked, trying to rein in his annoyance at the situation.</p>
<p>“Hmm… Why did I? That’s the question isn’t it?” Kakashi asked in a monotone.</p>
<p>Naruto belatedly noticed that his breath was labored, despite him not even moving from his place. Looking at Kakashi, Naruto knew that this man was his only chance at ever knowing the identity of his parents. He gritted his teeth at Kakashi’s nonchalant attitude. Naruto took in a deep breath again, something which he had been doing a lot often today.</p>
<p>“Can you at least give me another clue, as to where I can find something. Please Kakashi-san, I beg of you. I never had anyone growing up and except for one or two people, I still don’t. I am not being a brat. I am just asking you for another clue, you don’t have to tell me their identity, just one clue. That’s all I ask for. They are my parents Kakashi-san,”</p>
<p>“I told you, I don’t have the liberty to say anything. By the way your pranks are really cool. You must have had to clean the storage room in the Hokage tower a lot of times, I am sure. It’s getting late now. You should go home, see you around Uzumaki Naruto.” Kakashi said and left in a swirl of leaves.</p>
<p>Naruto reconsidered his statement of calling Kakashi annoying. Kakashi was not annoying, he was downright infuriating. Naruto stomped his way home after Kakashi left.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘I just asked for another clue. But noooo… that’s too tough for Mr. I-can-fight-with-one-eye. Even after not telling me anything about my parents or giving me a clue, he still had the guts to praise my pranks. Why did he praise my pranks all of a sudden? Stupid jounin.’ </em>
</p>
<p>Naruto lay awake, looking at the ceiling with utmost interest, when something clicked to him. He sat up abruptly.</p>
<p><em>‘Wait… was that supposed to be the clue? Because why would anyone do a complete 180 from a serious topic to pranks? He said something about cleaning the storage room as a punishment. How is that a clue?’</em> Naruto groaned and tried to sleep it off, but all his efforts went in vain.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>When Naruto settled in at the academy the next day, he was irritated to say the least. He hadn’t slept in two days and the clue Kakashi gave him was driving him nuts.</p>
<p><em>‘Well since he praised my pranks, let’s play a prank and see what happens then. My hands have been itching to play a prank for a long time now, and I know who is going to be my target this time.’ </em>He narrowed his eyes at Sakura and Ino, a familiar grin firmly in place.</p>
<p>Naruto went out of the class during lunch and brought a few supplies. He wrote something on all of his books and switched his bag with Ino’s just before she left for home. As they had no homework today, so there was no reason for Ino to open her bag after reaching home. He, after making sure that Ino would not touch her bag for a few hours, left for Sakura’s home.</p>
<p>In the dark night with no moon in the sky to provide with some light, Naruto silently crept into Sakura’s room. The girl was fast asleep in her bed, Naruto mentally berated the pinkette about her sense of survival.</p>
<p>After throwing his load in the bins near Sakura’s home Naruto ran for the Yamanaka clan compound and checked in on Ino. She was lying in her room with a lot of books on beauty tips around her. Naruto shook her head at the girl and wondered how her father, a renowned shinobi of his field, put up with her.</p>
<p>He then went back to his home; cause if he stayed too long, someone was bound to notice his presence. He took a cold shower and crawled into his living room. Too tired to cook dinner for himself, Naruto went to the Ichiraku Ramen stand and treated himself with a few bowls of ramen for a job well done.</p>
<p>When Naruto woke up the next morning, he felt refreshed. He hadn’t had any sleep for two days and now the good night’s rest was doing his body good. He got out of bed and completed his morning routine of physical exercise with a healthy breakfast. He then made his way towards the academy and sat down on his usual seat near the window in the last row. He was still thinking about his parents to pay attention to his surroundings. When he heard howls of laughter inside the classroom, he looked up to find that Sakura sitting down in the middle row with her head down, her face tomato red.</p>
<p>Sakura was wearing complete orange. Her hair was of orange color too. Then Ino came in and started to laugh her head off.</p>
<p>“Wao Forehead… I… never... knew… you… liked… orange… so… much.” Ino said between gasps.</p>
<p>If it was even possible, Naruto saw that Sakura turned even a darker shade of red. He too was having a hard time trying to keep himself from laughing at Sakura’s expressions. But Iruka-sensei came to his rescue as he yelled at everyone to settle down and open their books.</p>
<p><em>‘It’s not over yet’</em> Naruto spoke under his breath in a sing-song voice.</p>
<p>Just then Ino screeched at the top of her voice making everyone turn to her. Kiba who sat behind her grabbed her notebook and read out loud “Sasuke is gay” and started shaking violently trying to control his laughter but lost it when most of the civilian boys began to cackle almost maniacally, so Naruto being the good classmate he is, joined in.</p>
<p>The girls were yelling in outrage at Ino and boys were busy hooting when Iruka-sensei again used his big head jutsu to calm the class down, but that too took a few minutes easily.</p>
<p>“There is only one person who can do this...” Ino said and made eye contact with Sakura.</p>
<p>Naruto saw both the girls with Sasuke turn towards him simultaneously and the whole class froze.</p>
<p>“NARUTOOOO!!” three voices yelled.</p>
<p>Naruto ducked just in time from Sakura’s oncoming fist and kawairami-ed with Iruka-sensei’s duster and hid behind him clutching to his chunin vest. Iruka wisely shunshined out of the room and near the Hokage’s office with Naruto in tow, leaving the other teachers who had heard the commotion to try and handle the class.</p>
<p>As soon as Naruto’s feet touched the ground, he roared in laughter, holding his stomach just as the Hokage opened the door, wanting to know about the uproar made in the academy.</p>
<p>“What is going on here?” the Hokage asked Iruka.</p>
<p>“There is only one person here who can answer your question Hokage-sama,” Iruka said glaring at Naruto, who was still busy rolling on the floor laughing.</p>
<p>Finally managing to catch his breath, Naruto wiped at his face, tears trickling out of his eyes. “I am sorry Jiji, I had controlled myself for very long. I just couldn’t help it,” he said still chuckling.</p>
<p>“What did you do this time Naruto?” the Hokage sighed, already used to Naruto’s antics.</p>
<p>“Can we talk about this in the office Jiji?”</p>
<p>The Hokage ushered everyone in and sat down in his seat, folding his hands in front of him, gesturing at Naruto to speak.</p>
<p>“This morning Sakura-san came in completely orange, even her hair and Ino-san had ‘Sasuke is gay’ written in her notebook. I have no idea why everyone is assuming that I did the deed. Sakura-san, Ino-san, and Sasuke-teme tried to attack me so I hid behind Iruka-sensei and he brought me here. That’s what happened Jiji.” Naruto calmly explained even though he had a huge smirk on his face.</p>
<p>“You can go now Iruka, I will handle it. You must go and control your students,”</p>
<p>“Hai Hokage-sama” Iruka said. He looked pointedly at Naruto which told him that he would have to have a talk with Iruka-sensei after this.</p>
<p>After Iruka left, the Hokage sighed and took a long drag from his pipe, following with a few more drags, he asked “Did you do this Naruto?”</p>
<p>“There is no evidence which proves that I was the one behind the prank Jiji, but yes it was me.” Naruto said looking out the window trying to make it seem like he was being defiant.</p>
<p>“I don’t wish to punish you Naruto, but you pranked your comrades and I cannot let that slide. You will clean the classes after the end of session each day for a week and…no ramen for three days.”</p>
<p>“What?” Naruto yelled indignantly. This had not been a part of his plan. “No ramen? For three days? Jiji, I’ll die.”</p>
<p>“No Naruto, orders are orders. Now go.”</p>
<p>Naruto started panicking internally. He had to get to the storage unit in the tower. But if he denied any further or suggested cleaning the said unit, he would be caught. Resigning himself to his fate, Naruto figured he would have to find another way to get what he wanted.</p>
<p>“Okay Jiji, as you say.” Naruto said with a down trodden expression and looked at the Hokage from under his eyelashes to show that he was devastated.</p>
<p>Naruto had, after a lot of struggle and headbanging, figured out why Kakashi gave him such a clue. He wanted Naruto to search for something that was kept in the storage room which would help him in finding out who his parents are.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Naruto was cleaning a particularly nasty class when a thought registered itself into his brain.<em> ‘Since the academy and administration building are attached, that gives me a week to find that storage room and figure out the mystery behind my parents.’ </em></p>
<p>Naruto squealed internally and did a little victory dance. He completed his work briskly and snuck into the administrative building disguised as a small rodent. He figured that if he used henge to turn himself into some random shinobi then he would be caught very easily so he transformed into an animal.</p>
<p>//henge = transform</p>
<p>Naruto reckoned, that since it was a storage room, it would be on the lower floors. So, he decided to check the basement and the floor above it for today. After only a few hours of trouble he finally found out the location of the infamous storage room.</p>
<p>When Naruto reached the storage room, he was supporting a face splitting smile. He went around looking for anything that would seem to be related to Uzumaki Kushina or births on 10<sup>th</sup> of October. He found Uzumaki Kushina’s academy registration paper which looked so old that he was scared he would unknowingly tear it by just holding it for too long. He was surprised to find out that the Fourth Hokage had been his mother’s classmate.</p>
<p>Naruto looked at the Fourth Hokage’s picture carefully. Naruto gave a dry chuckle upon finding out that his dreams were similar with the Fourth Hokage’s. Moving a thumb across the bottom of the page, under ‘Goals’ section; he realized, in some corner of his heart, he still considered the man as his idol.</p>
<p>Kyubi or no Kyubi, no one could deny that the Fourth Hokage had been a legend in his own right and will forever remain one. Naruto carefully took out the two academy registration papers and secured them in his jacket pocket.</p>
<p>Upon reaching his place, he took out the papers and examined them again.</p>
<p>Naruto happened to glance at himself in the mirror after staring at Namikaze Minato, the Fourth Hokage, for some time and he noticed that they both looked a lot alike</p>
<p>Naruto took note of the similarity between him and his idol, their hair and eye color were exactly the same. He stood up and patted his hair, trying to make them seem longer than they actually were. He silently laughed at the prospect of looking like a mini Minato and went back to sleep.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Later, Naruto found himself wondering, as he was sneaking around, how he was supposed to find his parent’s identities when the clue Kakashi had provided was not as useful as he had thought.</p>
<p>Inside the storage room, Naruto kept looking despite having no luck the day before. When he was almost devoid of all hope, he found a list of married people inside Konoha. When he checked the dates, he realized these were the people who had gotten married years before he was even born.</p>
<p>Naruto thought that Kushina-san might have been married and started to look for her name in the list. His eyes almost bulged out of their sockets when he read that Uzumaki Kushina was married to Namikaze Minato.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘What the… Uzumaki Kushina was the Yondaime’s wife?!’</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>‘But if Uzumaki Kushina is my mother… then… is the Yondaime my father?!’</em>
</p>
<p>Naruto suddenly recalled how he had compared the similarities between him and the Fourth Hokage just yesterday night.</p>
<p>That day Naruto scoured through the storage room all night for anything that would either support his insane theory or deny it, but he was unable to find even a speck of information.</p>
<p>Placing a tight leash on his emotions, Naruto stood up. He placed that document in a pocket inside his jacket and left the building. He first ran to his home and placed all of his valuables that he had collected yesterday and today under a loose floorboard under his bed. The most secure place in his house.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Naruto, for the life of him, couldn’t pay attention to whatever Iruka-sensei was teaching at the moment. His brain was all jumbled. If anyone asked him a question right now, he would most probably respond with gibberish. He went through most of his day on auto-pilot. He only came out of his trance when he was walking back to his house and accidently collided with Uchiha Sasuke.</p>
<p>“Watch where you are going Dobe,” Sasuke snapped.</p>
<p>“Huh… oh, yeah, okay sorry,” Naruto responded and moved away. He missed the uneasy and surprised look that Sasuke gave him.</p>
<p>Pondered upon how to confirm that he was the Fourth Hokage and his wife’s son, Naruto came to only one conclusion.</p>
<p>With a goal set in mind Naruto left to search for a silver-haired-one-eyed jounin.</p>
<p>Naruto ran around the village looking for the lazy jounin, but couldn’t find him anywhere. Dejected, he made his way towards the memorial stone and saw the one-eyed jounin was just standing there.</p>
<p>Naruto groaned, he felt like pulling his hair out. He treaded closer towards the jounin and stood silently next to him. He fidgeted for a few minutes as he gathered some courage. This was such a big moment for him. He tried not to hope to much.</p>
<p>Risking a glance at his companion once; the man stood stock still, no emotion on his face, his body language represented complete indifference; Naruto sighed.</p>
<p>He ran several scenarios inside his head. When his eyes fell on the name of one specific Uzumaki woman, Naruto felt his shoulders drop and realized how every muscle in his body was coiled like a spring.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘Even if it may not be true, this is something worth risking my sanity for…’</em>
</p>
<p>Naruto released a breath and steeled his resolve. He decided to break the silence as he could not contain himself anymore.</p>
<p>“How did you know my parents Kakashi-san?” Naruto asked, voice barely above a whisper.</p>
<p>“I told you before, I can’t tell you,” Kakashi replied.</p>
<p>Naruto turned to look at Kakashi in the eye. He knew, his question weighed way too much so he worded it as carefully as one would treat a live bomb and took a gamble.</p>
<p>“Okay, let me put it this way then… How did you know Namikaze Minato and his wife Uzumaki Kushina, Kakashi-san?” Naruto asked softly. He felt the corners of his mouth lift up in a small smile just as Kakashi’s lone eye snapped towards him.</p>
<p><em>‘So, I was correct. They really are my parents,’</em> Naruto thought staring at the two names that were now imprinted on his heart, mind, and soul.</p>
<p>
  <strong>
    <span class="u">Namikaze Minato</span>
  </strong>
</p>
<p>
  <strong>
    <span class="u">Uzumaki Kushina</span>
  </strong>
</p>
<p>Naruto now noticed that both the names were engraved one after the other, probably trying to convey their love for the village and for one another.</p>
<p>“You don’t have to answer me Kakashi-san, your silence in enough.” Naruto said turning his head to look at the two names carved on the memorial stone again.</p>
<p>“Namikaze Minato was my Jounin-sensei before he gained the title of the Yondiame Hokage; and during Kushina-nee’s pregnancy, he assigned me as her ANBU bodyguard,” Kakashi said in an undertone.</p>
<p>Naruto just made a ‘hmm’ sound and then knelt down in front of the memorial stone with his head bowed in respect towards all the fallen shinobi.</p>
<p>“I am sorry Kaa-chan, Tou-chan. I am terribly sorry for whatever I did to degrade your name up until now. I will do everything in my power to make you proud and protect this village, even if it costs me my own life.” Naruto looked up at his parents’ names, he felt a lump in his throat, his eyes were burning with unshed tears but through trembling lips, he continued, “Promise of a lifetime.”</p>
<p>After that Naruto told Kakashi a soft goodbye and thanked him for his help. Naruto made his way back to his house ignoring all the glares and whispering people with a small smile on his face.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>The next day Naruto woke up a little early, excitement bubbling in his chest. He eagerly completed his morning routine and devoured his food.</p>
<p>Before going to the academy, Naruto brought out his prized possessions from under his bed. Gazing at his parents’ picture with a smile, though he frowned when he read that his father was living in an orphanage when he had joined the academy. Naruto quickly noted the name of the orphanage and the place where his mother had lived.</p>
<p>After Naruto completed his duty at the academy, he ran towards the orphanage after making sure that no one was following him. Naruto felt a bead of sweat roll down his neck, and swallowed slowly. He knew that one wrong move, and this whole mission will blow up in his face. He idly wondered if he should have done this after becoming a genin, since at that time he would be out of the way of the civilian council and under the control of the shinobi council.</p>
<p>Quickly ridding his palms of any lingering sweat, Naruto turned himself to look like an old woman and stood outside the gates. Plastering a smile on his face, he tried to make it seem like he was reminiscing good old memories as he waited for someone to notice him.</p>
<p>A girl, who was watering the plants along the walls of the building, came outside. Naruto checked her chakra levels to ensure that the girl was civilian and wouldn’t be able to see through his disguise.</p>
<p>“Obaa-san? Are you lost?” the girl asked.</p>
<p>“No, no, my dear. I was just checking this place for any changes. I used to work here you know,” Naruto answered modulating his voice carefully.</p>
<p>“Well, would you like to come inside and meet the kids? I am sure they would love to meet you,” the girl said with a small smile gracing her face.</p>
<p>“Sure, why not. Though I wonder if anyone here is like my Minato,”</p>
<p>Naruto noticed out of the corner of his eye that the girl looked surprised. He guessed she was a new-worker and had only heard stories about the great Fourth Hokage. He felt weird calling his father by his first name, but for the time being he swallowed his nervousness and followed the girl inside the house.</p>
<p>After playing for some time with the kids, Naruto told the girl it was time for him to return. He was annoyed that he couldn’t talk to the matron and got up to leave. Outside the gates, the girl stopped him and asked if Naruto had really looked after the Fourth Hokage when the man was a mere child.</p>
<p>“Yes dear, I did. It was a shame that I had to move before he became chunin,”</p>
<p>“You wouldn’t have found him here anyway. I have heard from the matron that he bought a house after he achieved the rank of chunin,”</p>
<p>“Oh really? Where?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know.” the girl said. She narrowed her eyes slightly at Naruto, “Why are you asking?”</p>
<p>Naruto panicked for a second but managed to answer smoothly. “Oh no reason dear. And thank you very much for letting me have a little fun with the kids. My own kids died in the third shinobi war, so I never had any grandkids. But looking at you my dear, I hope they would have been sweet just like you,” He gave the girl a slight pat on the shoulder and left, hoping he didn’t trigger any alarms inside her head.</p>
<p>Naruto offhandedly noticed that apart from him, the people in Konoha were treated with kindness and respect. He shook his head and refused to let the bitter feelings cloud his brain. He was on a mission right now, he had to focus.</p>
<p>When he reached the address that was written in his mother’s paper, he frowned because there was no house in sight. A weapons shop stood on the piece of land where his mother’s house should have been. He tried to ask around but most people replied that the shop had been there for years.</p>
<p>Naruto went back to his house disappointed. He was yearning to learn more about his parents.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>After finishing his assigned work, Naruto saw that Iruka-sensei was grading a few papers outside in the academy training ground. A foxy grin made its way on his face as he went around hoping to scare his sensei but Iruka spoke in a warning tone before Naruto could do anything.</p>
<p>“Do not even try that Naruto.”</p>
<p>“Iruka-sensei, how did you know I was behind you?” Naruto enquired.</p>
<p>“You didn’t suppress your chakra Naruto and with the amount of chakra you have, it’s quite easy to spot you,”</p>
<p>“Huh… then how is it possible that not even ANBU could find me after a prank?”</p>
<p>Iruka laughed, “Honestly Naruto I have no idea,”</p>
<p>Naruto sat down next to his teacher. His thoughts however were on a completely different level. He contemplated on how he could ask his teacher something that would give him a clue about his parent’s house, without tipping him off. Naruto noticed a kid running by who was being chased by an adult when something occurred to him.</p>
<p>“Sensei?” Naruto asked.</p>
<p>“Hmm?”</p>
<p>“Who handles matters like robbery in Konoha?”</p>
<p>“The police force obviously,”</p>
<p>“We have a police force?” Naruto asked bewildered. In all his time pranking, he had never heard of the police force. He had always been chased by the ANBU or some other shinobi. He felt a sudden desire to prank this seemingly unknown police force.</p>
<p>“Of course, we do. It’s called the Konoha Military Police Force. It’s their duty to maintain law inside the village,” Iruka answered.</p>
<p>“Then how come I have never seen their office?”</p>
<p>“Uhm.. that’s because it’s on the outskirts of Konoha, near the Uchiha compound,”</p>
<p>“Why? If their duty is to maintain law inside the village then why is their office located all the way to the outskirts?”</p>
<p>“Personally, I don’t know Naruto, but one of the factors maybe because it was mainly an all Uchiha force, at least before the massacre. Even the emblem of the police force was a four-point star with the crest of the Uchiha clan at the center, Sasuke’s father was their head. The rules regarding the police force and their emblem was changed few years ago.”</p>
<p>“Does this also mean that they governed over shinobi?” Naruto asked, considering if this was the reason why Sasuke acted like a prick with a stick up his ass. The need to prank had now considerably increased in Naruto’s mind.</p>
<p>“Yes, they were regarded as ‘elite shinobi who monitor their fellow shinobi’. That’s the reason why the police force knows about almost every shinobi. But the Hokage has supreme power over everything,”</p>
<p>Naruto’s eyes widened when he heard that statement, the desire to prank forgotten, he had found a clue instead. He tried to suppress a grin from showing, but he was, on most part unsuccessful. He questioned again, keeping his voice low “Do they also know who lives where? I thought the residence of high-ranking shinobi was kept a secret,”</p>
<p>“Yeah, they do, I guess,”</p>
<p>“This may pose as a slight problem in my pranks…but meh,” Naruto said, looking around as if bored.</p>
<p>“Naruto…” Iruka called in warning. “No pranks. You should go home and focus on studying instead,”</p>
<p>
  <em>‘Home?’</em>
</p>
<p>Naruto suddenly remembered Kakashi speaking about going home too. He scoffed, <em>‘The man should take his own advice.’</em></p>
<p>“I don’t wanna,” Naruto mumbled with his head down. “It’s not like there is anyone waiting for me,”</p>
<p>“Naruto… come on, I’ll take you to Ichiraku Ramen. My treat.”</p>
<p>“That sounds awesome sensei!” Naruto gave a small smile.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Now Naruto had an idea on how to find his parent’s house, but what was he going to do after finding it? While they were eating, Naruto asked Iruka what happens to a house if it’s owner dies.</p>
<p>“Well, in most of the cases, when the owner dies, they leave a ‘will’ behind and that ‘will’ determines what happens to the house.”</p>
<p>Naruto haven’t had the foggiest clue about any will that his parents may or may not have written. He pursed his lips as he thought about alternatives. “And if they haven’t left a Will?”</p>
<p>“Then, their children or other family members can stake a claim on the house and the police decides which claim is more legit.”</p>
<p>If this was true, then the house must be empty, Naruto mused. Because his father had been an orphan and there were no Uzumaki from his mother’s side, to claim the house. Whatever the claim maybe, Naruto was sure his claim to the house will have higher priority than anyone. It was at that moment that Naruto was made aware of yet another problem. He refrained from growling in Iruka’s presence and instead asked, “How do most shinobi protect their house sensei?”</p>
<p>“Seals, Naruto. I taught you about that remember. Most shinobi surround their house with perimeter, security, blood seals and many other kinds of seals in their absence and presence.”</p>
<p>“Blood seals?”</p>
<p>“Mhmm,” Iruka said, wiping a bit of broth from his face, “a blood seal can only be opened with the blood of the person who had written the seal. Though it can also be opened by the creator’s biological children or parents. Since they carry the same blood.”</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>After the ramen filled early dinner, Naruto scowled as he scouted the location of the police station ‘cause it was heavily guarded.</p>
<p>After a few hours many shinobi left to handle the new commotion in the Hyuga compound. Naruto swiftly went inside, and tried to find his father’s estate. A few moments of fiddling later, Naruto had the general location of the house. Just as he heard people return, he quietly made his way out the window.</p>
<p>Naruto cackled all the way back to his house because the police force and many other shinobi were highly confused as Hyuga Hiashi, the Hyuga clan leader himself, had called upon the help of the police force because someone put dark red color inside their water tanks which freaked out most of the kids since they thought it was blood rather than colored water.</p>
<p>Naruto searched and searched for his father’s house but even with the general location in his mind, he couldn’t find it. He moved around aimlessly.</p>
<p>When Naruto reached the outskirts of Konoha, he blinked for a good five minutes as if whatever his eyes were seeing, were only now, being registered in his brain. He stood in front of large gates that had black colored flag with the clan symbol stitched on it, draped over the upper half.</p>
<p>Naruto recognized that symbol easily, he had seen it enough times on the back of Sasuke’s shirt.</p>
<p>Naruto then realized he was standing in front of the Uchiha district.</p>
<p>Observing the Uchiha crest lazily, an entire scene came to Naruto and his eyes widened almost comically.</p>
<p>
  <em>**Flashback**</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Naruto was gazing out the window in his classroom when Sasuke’s fangirls screamed again jolting Naruto out of his peaceful trance. He saw Mizuki-sensei praising Sasuke for his knowledge when Kiba asked the boy how he knew so much about clans.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“It’s obvious I know these things, you imbicile. Unlike you, I pay attention in the class.” Sasuke sneered.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Naruto saw Sakura give heart eyes to the emo bastard and wondered if the girl will ever be that nice to him some day. He heard Ino ask Sasuke if his father had taught him on clans in Konoha.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“Yes, he did. I know where most of the famous buildings are.” Sasuke said with his nose high in the air.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>**Flashback End**</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>‘Tou-chan died before the Uchiha massacre. At that time Sasuke’s father must have been the head of the Konoha Military Police Force, then he must have known the exact address of Tou-chan’s house.’</em>
</p>
<p>Naruto silently made his way inside the district; he was not afraid since there wasn’t anyone who would catching him snooping around, but it was better to be safe then sorry.</p>
<p>All the streets looked barren and Naruto wondered if the bastard, Sasuke, still lived here. The houses had an eerie feeling to them. Naruto felt completely creeped out. He suppressed a shudder every now and then as he looked around.</p>
<p>The main family mansion was pretty easy to find. The biggest house in the district. Naruto disabled a few traps when he tried to enter the house through a window. He nodded in appreciation, <em>‘At least teme has some sense of security.’</em></p>
<p>Naruto peeked around cautiously. He didn’t want to wake up the bastard if he was in the house.</p>
<p>Naruto searched almost everywhere with no luck. He was searching through the cabinets in Sasuke’s parents’ room, he guessed, where he found a box. It contained little animal toys, a few pieces of jewelry and a small piece of paper quietly tucked in one corner. He took it out and noticed that there was nothing written on it. But the page felt as if something was written on it. He smelled it and realized that the words on the paper were written in invisible ink.</p>
<p>After swiftly lighting a match under the paper, the words began to appear.</p>
<p>Naruto’s eyes widened in disbelief when he realized it was a ‘will’ which was signed by Jiraiya, Third Hokage, Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina. It stated that everything that was in the Namikaze house now belonged to Naruto as the sole heir. His parents had left him everything they owned. From the house to the money inside their vaults and everything in between. This was just a copy of the will. The actual Will was inside the house, which was now under a lockdown after his parent’s death. There was a blood seal present on the house.</p>
<p>There was something else written at the end of the paper. ‘I am sorry Kushina, I couldn’t protect you or your child. You always helped me, but I… I don’t deserve to be called your best-friend. I hope I can apologize to you in the afterlife.’</p>
<p>When Naruto heard the front door open, he quickly left the house with the paper still clasped in his hand.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Upon reaching his house, Naruto breathed in and out a few times.</p>
<p>He couldn’t believe that his and Sasuke’s mother had been best-friends. He read the paper again and again.</p>
<p>Naruto quickly looked over the address and frowned. <em>‘This is pretty far from the village center. I searched this place too. I would have found the house if it was there. Well there is no harm in checking again.’</em></p>
<p>Naruto made his way towards his parent’s house. He was a little confused because he surely had checked that place before and there was nothing there, but now he could clearly see the houses as if a veil had been lifted. There was no one around for a few miles, sure there were houses there but they looked like they were empty.</p>
<p>Shaking his head, Naruto tugged ahead. Remembering Iruka-sensei’s words, he took out a kunai from his holster and made a cut on his left hand. He then pressed his bloody palm to the doorknob and heard some sort of clicking sound, the door glowed blue for a second then soundlessly opened up for him.</p>
<p>Naruto pushed the door wide open and shuffled his feet inside, closing the front door behind him. There was a smell in the house which indicated that it had not been looked after for a few years.</p>
<p>He flicked the light switch open. The hallway he entered in was a bit dark, some steps led to the upper floor on his right side, and on his left side was a door. He opened it and was hit with the full force of that stale smell, this was the kitchen, he rationed. There was a dining table with four chairs around it.</p>
<p>Naruto opened up a few windows to let some air in. Upon peeking in to the living room he found a few pictures of his parents hung on the wall, a couch with a small table in front it, there were a few chairs too. He made his way up the stairs and found the master bedroom, a nursery, a guest bedroom, and a study room.</p>
<p>There was not much in the nursery but he could see that his parents decorated it just for him. He could feel their love as he touched the crib which had a soft blue blanket in it. He saw a few plush toys around the shelf, which he guessed contained clothes. Letting out a shaky laugh, Naruto picked up a green frog plushy; it looked just like his wallet Gama-chan.</p>
<p>Naruto stood in front of the master bedroom door, contemplating whether to cross the threshold or not.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘Well it’s now or never’</em>
</p>
<p>The master bedroom had a few shelves with scrolls and books. There was a wardrobe which had his parent’s clothes. He pulled his father’s blue full sleeve shirt and his mother’s white shirt close to himself.</p>
<p>Clutching to the old pieces of fabric like a little child would clutch to his favorite toy, Naruto tried to control his traitorous tears so that he wouldn’t ruin the only thing he had of his parents. He sniffed once and sat down near the foot of the bed. He didn’t dare to sit on their bed, he knew he would break down if he did. Naruto hugged those clothes as tightly as possible as he tried to imagine what it would be like to be hugged by a loving parent.</p>
<p>Now only the basement and one more room were left. Steeling his heart, Naruto moved inside the room, with his parent’s clothes still in his grasp, and saw two big ceiling to floor shelves with a variety of books and scrolls. He guessed the room must have been his father’s office. There were a few papers on the desk, above everything were two letters… addressed to him.</p>
<p>Naruto sat down in the visitor’s chair, there was no way he would sit in his father’s chair, at least not yet. His hands trembled as he picked up the first letter. There was some tic-tic sound coming from somewhere around him. It took Naruto some time to notice that his teeth were chattering, even though he was not feeling cold. He took in a few shaky breaths before prying one of the letters open.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>Hello Naruto,</strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>If you are reading this letter, then that means I lost to the Kyubi. I am really sorry, my son for not being there for you. You have to understand Naru, I have no choice. I am the Hokage, I have to think about the safety of my village. But don’t think, even for a second, that I didn’t love you. When Kushina told me that she was pregnant with you, I was beyond happy. I loved you with all my heart Naru, and I always will. Just because you can’t see me doesn’t mean that I am not there. I will always be in your heart, as you will forever be in mine, just like your mother. I have given the Godfather responsibilities to my sensei. Jiraiya-sensei is like a father figure to me. I just hope he is not being a bad influence. Even though he is one of the Sannin, don’t you copy his lifestyle Naru. If I see you drinking before you at least turn twenty, it would not bode well for you, young man.</strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>I wished for you to be an excellent shinobi. I wanted to teach you everything that I learned. I am really sorry for not being a good father to you Naru.</strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>Retain the Will of Fire Naru. I am sure you will find friends who see you for you and not what you carry. I have left all my techniques and the instructions that I think are necessary for a shinobi, for you.</strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>I told Sandaime-sama to give you your mother’s last name. I am sorry for that. But many shinobi would try to hurt you just because you are my son. I don’t care what last name you carry, just be the best version of yourself Naru. Be happy.</strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>I will always be proud of you my son.</strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>Your father</strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>Namikaze Minato</strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Naruto’s hands were shaking, tears were running down his face. He hastily wiped his face not wanting to ruin the letter in any way. He cried for a good few minutes then picked up the second letter.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>Hey Naruto,</strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>This is me, your mother, The Great Uzumaki Kushina. Are you eating well my boy? Is anyone troubling you? If they are, then tell them to stay away or I will come back from my grave and beat them up for hurting my poor baby.</strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>Minato wanted me to write to you, in case I don’t make it through the childbirth. I don’t wish to side with him on this one, but it is a possibility. Just like always, he wants to prepare for the worst-case scenario. I hope you never have to read this letter. I hope I get to tear this letter apart after we bring you home.</strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>I love you my dear Naru, I love you with all my heart. I am really sorry, for not being there for you when you needed me the most. Even though your father is the biggest dork I know, I love him. I love my little family very much. I was brought here from Uzushiogakure Naru, just to be the next Jinchuriki of the Kyubi because of my special chakra. I am the second Jinchuriki of the Kyubi. Before me it was Mito-sama, the Shodaime Hokage’s wife. We Uzumaki women tend to have a special type of chakra, which can be used to control even the most powerful tailed beasts. Minato told me to write a small letter and not be a motor mouth. </strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>Tell Jiraiya-sensei that if he even tries to be a little lax in caring for you, he will face my wrath. Don’t you dare follow his stupid methods Naru and don’t you go around being a reckless shinobi. I have enough to worry about you already; don’t add to my plate once you grow up. Make friends Naru, it doesn’t matter how many. Just a few, who you can trust with your life, would do. Just like your father, I have left you everything I learned in my time as a kunoichi. Protect the village Naru. Be a nice person. Live happy.</strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>Do your best Naru, I love you and I will always be proud of you.</strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>Your mother</strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>Namikaze Kushina nee Uzumaki</strong>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Naruto carefully folded both the letters and returned them to their place before giving in the urge to cry his heart out.</p>
<p>Naruto clutched his head as tears streamed down his face, with no intention of stopping what so ever. He had never had anyone tell him that they loved him. People scorned him, day in and day out. And now, reading about his parents’ love for him, Naruto had no idea how to handle this. He tried to control himself by taking in a few deep breaths but nothing seemed to work. The grief of losing such amazing people, who Naruto is proud to call his parents, the people who gave birth to him, was indescribable.</p>
<p>His mother and father were such pure souls, Naruto hoped wherever they were, they were together and happy.</p>
<p>Naruto had, until today never felt this immense amount of… anguish, it seemed to burn him inside out. He felt like crying until his throat was raw, until there were no tears in his eyes.</p>
<p>Clutching to the material of his parents’ clothing to his chest, Naruto curled in on himself and cried himself to sleep. Dreaming about a life where his parents were still alive.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you all so much for the kudos.<br/>I'll try to update once a month, promise.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I do not own 'Naruto'. I would love to, but i don't. It's all Kishimoto.<br/>I want to thank everyone who commented or left bookmarks and kudos.<br/>Thank you very much and i'll try to update as soon as I can.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy</strong>
</p>
<p>Naruto woke up on cold hard surface, he dug the heel of his palm in his eyes trying to clear the sleep dazed vision. He suddenly gasped and his eyes widened when the memories of the past few hours’ escapade came barreling down on him. He looked out the window to see it was evening already.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘Shit! I missed academy today. Oh god Iruka-sensei must be so worried. He will kill me, when he finds me. I better find him myself and diffuse the situation before he goes to Jiji and get me into more trouble.’</em>
</p>
<p>Naruto left through the window and bolted towards the academy. He saw Iruka-sensei with a grim face heading towards the Hokage tower.</p>
<p><em>‘Thank god I got here just in time.’ </em>Naruto thought as he ran towards his teacher and yelled out, “Iruka-sensei!”</p>
<p>“Naruto? I was looking for you, you brat. Where the hell were you? You didn’t attend the academy today. Seriously Naruto, I thought you were more responsible than this,”</p>
<p>“Hehe…” Naruto chuckled sheepishly rubbing his neck as if he was embarrassed. “Sorry Iruka-sensei. I was practicing this morning and fell asleep. I am working hard on my taijutsu ya know. I am sooo going to beat Sasuke-teme’s ass in the next taijutsu spar,” he rambled as he familiarly did with Iruka-sensei. He didn’t want anyone to know that he was at his parents’ house.</p>
<p>At this point Naruto had become very good at hiding things that he wanted to hide. He saw Iruka-sensei give him a small smile.</p>
<p>“Well if you worked so hard, then how about we celebrate this with a bowl of ramen? What do you say?” Iruka asked.</p>
<p>“Wao sensei… you are the most amazing sensei ever. I will try not to miss any more lectures, Promise.”</p>
<p>As Naruto and Iruka walked towards the Ichiraku Ramen stand, they talked about different taijutsu styles and how some clans made their own taijutsu styles to suit their bloodline limits. Naruto wanted to know what taijutsu style the Namikaze and Uzumaki clans used but refrained himself. He would learn everything from his parent’s notes already, so why give himself away by asking such a question. Therefore, he asked about the other clans. Iruka-sensei told him about the Uchiha clan’s ‘Intercepting Fist’ taijutsu style which relied a lot on their bloodline limit, the Sharingan, similarly with the Hyuga clan’s ‘Gentle Fist’ which relied on their Byakugan to close their opponent’s tenketsu. And Iruka-sensei also told him about a jonin, who was a taijutsu specialist, using a style called the ‘Strong Fist’ which mostly relied on the user’s physical strength. The user must be ridiculous strong to use such a taijutsu style and not hurt himself/herself in the process.</p>
<p>After saying goodbye to each other, the teacher student duo went back to their respective homes.</p>
<p>Making sure that it was dark outside and he would not be noticed by anyone, Naruto went back to his parent’s house. He belatedly realized that he had left the windows open in his haste to catch up to Iruka. He briskly went inside and locked all the windows again, looking around to ensure no one saw him. He didn’t want to imagine how the civilian council would react to him breaking into some house, no matter the house was rightfully his or not.</p>
<p>Naruto entered the basement lastly. It was like a mini-library on the right side. There were four floor-to-ceiling shelves filled to the brim with books and scrolls. There was a small dojo/meditation center to the left, which had a few swords on the walls. He also saw his father’s Hiraishin markings throughout the house and there were a few of his special kunai hanging around the house. He first went to the taijutsu section and picked out a scroll on the ‘Namikaze Cheetah Style for beginners’ He unrolled it and got to work. Sitting on the small kitchen table he started reading it when another problem registered in his brain.</p>
<p>Tomorrow was academy day again.</p>
<p><em>‘Shit… what do I do now? If I go to the academy I miss out on training, if I train I won’t be in the academy and I promised Iruka-sensei I would be there.’ </em>Naruto sagged a little at that thought as he pursed his lips,<em> ‘Why did I have to go and promise Iruka-sensei that I would come? What to do… what to do… what to do…’</em></p>
<p>Naruto kept thinking about how he would be in two places at once and recalled the bunshin technique taught in the academy.</p>
<p>//bunshin jutsu = clone technique</p>
<p>
  <em>‘But bunshin is an illusion, it doesn’t do anything and it won’t hold for the entirety of the classes. I need something stronger and sturdier.’</em>
</p>
<p>Naruto snapped his eyes upwards, when he felt something hit his head, only to find out that he was standing in the basement in front of a shelf. He had unconsciously started walking towards the shelves in the basement to look for a solution for his new problem.</p>
<p>Taking the Ninjutsu section, he searched the lower regions of the shelf. After a few hours, he found a scroll which said ‘Bunshin no jutsu’.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘Gotcha’</em>
</p>
<p>Naruto grinned and went back upstairs to read through the scroll. Upon opening the scroll, he found out that it was written by his father himself. He began to read carefully, understanding each and every syllable. Apparently there were various ways to make a bunshin, may it be out of mud, water, or many other things including shadow itself. Naruto read about ‘Kage Bunshin no jutsu’ and mentally declared that it was the most awesome jutsu ever. There was a warning written below, which stated that the user must have lots of chakra to carry out that jutsu. And the worst-case scenario would be that the user might end up killing themselves due to severe chakra exhaustion.</p>
<p>Naruto dryly thought that this jutsu was the one he could do perfectly. With the fox in his gut, there were very less chances that he would suffer through chakra exhaustion. Making his way to the training ground three, Naruto started practicing.</p>
<p>The morning sun peeked out from behind a bunch of clouds, casting a warm glow on the entire village. Everyone seemed to be in higher spirits with the perfect weather, except for Naruto. He was highly irritated and that was because he still couldn’t form a decent kage bunshin. He had been at it for hours now, but Naruto was nothing if not persistent. He sat down with a huff and started reading the theory, on the way he was supposed to mold his chakra, again. Upon hearing a shuffle of feet near him, Naruto quickly grabbed his stuff and ran to the trees for cover.</p>
<p>“Why do I have to do grocery shopping again? Well I will just make my clone do it instead.”</p>
<p>Naruto heard a familiar voice speak, so he bent his body a little to get a good look at the person who interrupted his training.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘What is Kakashi-san doing here? It’s still very early, I thought no one came to this ground a lot. Is he here to look at the memorial stone again? And what did he mean about letting his clone do the work for him? Normal clones don’t do anything. Is he talking about different bunshin jutsu?’</em>
</p>
<p>Naruto stared intently at the scene unfolding before him. When he saw Kakashi make a kage bunshin of himself, which left to do the assigned work, Naruto was grateful for his luck which had finally started to change.</p>
<p>Though Naruto figured out what he was doing wrong but he wasn’t sure if he should come out and practice in front of the older shinobi. There was a small threat of Kakashi reporting all this to the Hokage, but Naruto figured that with all the hints the silver-haired man had given him, the last thing Kakashi would do was tattle on him.</p>
<p>Naruto slowly and silently walked back towards the house, looking behind his shoulder every now and then. Upon reaching his destination, he started practicing again.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>A few hours later, Naruto jumped around in joy as he looked at his clones. He stopped and looked at one of his clones trying to find any faults, but when his eyes made contact with the oh-so-familiar pools of blue, all of his clones started jumping, yelling how awesome their boss was. On finally settling down he looked around to find thirty copies of himself staring at him with something akin to enthusiasm in their eyes. He hadn’t meant to make so many, but… the more the merrier.</p>
<p>The one clone who was in the front spoke up, diverting Naruto’s attention towards him.</p>
<p>“So boss, what do you want us to do?”</p>
<p>Naruto thought hard on what he could make his clones do. Some part of his brain was wondering why his father wrote one seal wrong about the execution part of the jutsu, because Kakashi had made a different seal than the one given in his father’s notes. Putting the thought aside, he remembered reading that after dispelling the memories of that clone were transferred to the original.</p>
<p>So, Naruto ordered one clone to go to the academy and act normally, like he had done till now, fourteen of them will clean the entire house and the fifteen left would go through the basement and make a list for him, on which book was kept where, while the original would work on learning his father’s taijutsu style. All thirty or so Narutos left to do their assigned work.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>After reading the scroll thoroughly, Naruto started going through the basic katas to learn the stances. He was having a lot of difficulty, as he couldn’t pay attention to the stances he was making and check if they were correct simultaneously. He called the clone which was cleaning the dojo near him.</p>
<p>“Yeah boss what’s up?” the clone asked.</p>
<p>“Can you check if my stances are right while I go through them?”</p>
<p>“Sure thing boss,”</p>
<p>A few more hours went by with Naruto concentrating solely on getting his stances correct. He cursed every time he slipped and idly wondered if his clones hadn’t mopped the hard wood floors properly. When he heard his clone speak, he looked up to see what was wrong.</p>
<p>“I think you should rest for some time now boss,”</p>
<p>That was when Naruto realized that he was dripping with sweat, breath was coming in short gasps. He sat down the wooden floorboards and frowned at his state. <em>‘Am I this weak? I have just been at it for a few hours. I should really up my physical training.’ </em></p>
<p>Unbeknownst to Naruto, he had been working for more than 5 hours straight. He slowly got up and headed upstairs, to find something edible for himself. He found a plate full of steaming food ready for him, when he reached the kitchen. The clone who was coming up behind him informed him that the other clones made some food when he was too wrapped up in his own training. He finished every scrape of the food without leaving anything.</p>
<p>Naruto got up and walked inside the living room where all the clones had gathered, even the one who went to the academy was back. He sat down on the couch and told all of them to release the jutsu. Following that, in a few seconds ‘pain’ was the only word that registered in his brain before he passed out unceremoniously on the couch.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>When Naruto woke up, it was night already and he felt like a nail was being hammered into his head. Rubbing his head, he made his way back to his house and inhaled a few ramen bowls before falling into bed. He felt drained, but the food had helped as he felt the pain ebb slightly.</p>
<p>Sitting up in a meditating position, Naruto went through all the memories that had barreled their way into his mind, because Iruka-sensei had once told him that whenever he felt a lot was on his mind, he should meditate.</p>
<p>First were the clones that made complete lists of all the library scrolls and books, some even made list of all the books that were in his father’s office and his parent’s bedroom. All the floors and windows were scrubbed clean; he could feel the strain in his hands as if he had cleaned them himself. At last, he went through the memories of the clone which had gone to academy.</p>
<p>Nothing of significance had happened in the academy, all the lessons that were taught, did not interest him in the least. That was when Iruka-sensei’s voice boomed in his mind; reminding them that tomorrow would be an all-out taijutsu spar. Wondering how long his clones would last in a taijutsu spar, Naruto decided he would try that in the morning and fell into a dreamless sleep.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Inside the training field, Naruto bowed in front of the Memorial Stone first, then proceeded to find out more about the Kage bunshin jutsu. He created about 10 clones of himself when an idea stuck to him.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘Since I regain all their memories then that means I can learn things much faster if two clones are studying about the same subject.’</em>
</p>
<p>He made another 40 clones and gave them their orders.</p>
<p>“The first fifteen of you will start on tree walking,”</p>
<p>“Yes boss” the clones shouted and walked away to do their work.</p>
<p>“Five of you will find a beginners book on sealing and read through it while the other ten will work on making our handwriting better,”</p>
<p>With another “Yes boss” fifteen more clones walked away from the original, making their way back to the house.</p>
<p>“Now another five of you will read through the book on Cheetah style taijutsu and the last five henge yourselves and roam around the village, try to find out what’s going on. Tail the other ninjas but don’t let them catch you. Read their body language; see how a ninja should act,”</p>
<p>With that order the last ten clones left, eager to complete their assignments, only after yelling out a “Yes Boss”</p>
<p>
  <em>‘Oh shit, they left and I hadn’t told them about how they are supposed to dispel themselves. Well let’s check out the theory about everyone knowing what had happened after the clones dispel.’</em>
</p>
<p>“You,” Naruto called one of the clones that he had made earlier, “Remember the clones are not supposed to dispel themselves. They will come back to the house after the academy hours and will wait for me. I have specific orders on how I want to dispel them. I don’t want another splitting headache. Now dispel.”</p>
<p>Naruto suddenly got the memory of himself ordering his clones and he blinked a few times to sort through the memories. “Did all of you get that memory as well?” he asked the nine that were left around him. Grinning widely when they nodded to his question, he called “Now, let’s get to work boys.”</p>
<p>Naruto sparred against his clones. When all nine of them popped, he frowned. All of them were good and he had had a hard time in winning every bout against them, but the problem was they had dispelled after the first attack on their body.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘This means they won’t last in a spar. So, either I have to attend the spars myself or do not attend them at all. Since Mizuki-sensei is our taijutsu instructor this year, I am pretty sure he wouldn’t mind if I don’t show up in his class. He would probably be glad, that bastard. I would just show up a few times and lose my matches like I had done till now, that would keep him from complaining about me.’ </em>
</p>
<p>Naruto looked at sun’s position, squinting his eyes, <em>‘Oh shoot, It’s almost time for the academy,’</em></p>
<p>Making one more clone, Naruto told him to find out about physical conditioning from his father’s or mother’s notes. The clone dispelled and Naruto began to move towards the academy. <em>‘It’s going to be a long day.’</em></p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Naruto was caught up fighting Inuzuka Kiba when the memories of five of his clones suddenly intruded his brain and he lost concentration. In his time of weakness, Kiba kicked him and he landed on his butt.</p>
<p>“Is that all you got dobe? I am pretty sure no one here likes you because you are so weak,” Kiba taunted.</p>
<p>Naruto knew that Kiba was just projecting his jealousy on him, seeing as Naruto now occupied a middle position in the class ranking and that made Kiba the dead last of the class.</p>
<p>“How are you, a clanless loser, going to defeat me huh? You will always be the dead last Uzumaki and I just won this round by kicking your ass,”</p>
<p>Naruto was enraged when Kiba insulted his clan, he may not know anything about them but he would damn well defend their honor. His nostrils flared as he growled, “How dare you insult the Uzumaki, Kiba? Are you so dumb that you don’t even know, the Shodiame Hokage’s wife was an Uzumaki?”</p>
<p>Naruto didn’t give Kiba a chance to reply, with cold fury shining in his eyes, he charged at Kiba but changed his movement the last minute to disorient the other boy and punched him in the gut, making him hunch over to try and even his breathing. Kiba recovered fairly quickly, at least quicker than Naruto expected.</p>
<p>Naruto waited for Kiba to rush towards him and when he did, Naruto bent slightly and delivered a spinning axe kick to Kiba’s head. Kiba flew out of the ring like a rag doll.</p>
<p>Everyone held their breath as Mizuki called Naruto winner.</p>
<p>Naruto didn’t know whether people were looking at him with fear or awe as he ignored every stare and excused himself to use the bathroom.</p>
<p>Just as Naruto was away from prying eyes, he made another clone which just poofed out of existence as quickly as it was made. The message was clearly ringing inside his head, and he was sure inside his clone’s heads too, that the ones practicing tree walking dispel themselves in the groups of five with a two-minute interval.</p>
<p>Naruto didn’t want what happened in the previous fight to happen again. He went back to the classroom and sat down rummaging through the clone’s memories to find what had happened to cause the first five clones to dispel so suddenly. He realized that as they were doing chakra control exercises and they just ran out of chakra first, so they got dispelled. He felt just a little bit of chakra returning back to him, meaning that the others too were running out of chakra and would have dispelled during his last match.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘Thank kami, I made the correct decision of telling them to dispel, otherwise they would have disrupted my fight with Sasuke. I swear, I’ll beat that sneer off his face today.’</em>
</p>
<p>When Naruto went back outside Sasuke was just entering the ring, Naruto kept his facial expressions neutral and entered the ring.</p>
<p>When Mizuki-sensei told them to begin, Sasuke shot at him like a bullet trying to punch his face in but Naruto step-sided and went to sweep Sasuke’s legs from under him but Sasuke jumped at the last moment and kicked Naruto in the chest.</p>
<p>Naruto went sliding back but dug his heels in the sand to stop the momentum, that much time was enough for Sasuke to try to jump-kick him. Naruto quickly rolled out of the way and caught Sasuke’s ankle to throw him out of the ring but he flipped mid-air and kicked Naruto in the head.</p>
<p>Naruto jumped back, rubbing his head, to maintain some distance but Sasuke was having none of it. He ran towards Naruto pulling his fist back, he tried a punch to Naruto’s gut, but Naruto caught his fist and twisted his hand behind his back. With a kick to Sasuke’s knee, Naruto tried to push him out of the ring since they were fighting very close to it. But Sasuke bent his injured knee and body even further and kicked Naruto in the chin with the heel of his foot.</p>
<p>Naruto again jumped away, trying to gain some ground. His entire body felt sluggish and he cursed the fact that because of his misjudgment, he couldn’t fight Sasuke on even grounds.</p>
<p>Sasuke however, turned around with a frown on his face. This time Naruto ran towards him and caught him around the waist to throw both of them out of the ring but Sasuke turned and Naruto fell out of the ring first with Sasuke above him.</p>
<p>Mizuki declared Sasuke winner just as he got up and went back inside the class without another glance at anyone. Everyone was cheering for Sasuke, even though he was not in the grounds itself. Naruto grudgingly got up and made his way out the academy but Shikamaru stopped him, Shino and Choji beside him.</p>
<p>“Hey Naruto… Nice match.” Shikamaru said.</p>
<p>Naruto didn’t know whether Shikamaru was complimenting his fight with Kiba or with Sasuke, but he figured it didn’t matter anyway. He smiled softly and thanked the other boy.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Naruto walked towards his house first, after a few minutes he made a clone and silently left through the window. Looking behind him every other minute and changing course a number of times, Naruto finally reached his parent’s house. He made another clone and ordered him to prepare some food, and walked inside the living room. He saw that all the clones were there, waiting for his orders. They all looked up when he entered.</p>
<p>“First the ones who practiced hand-writing, dispel yourselves.” Naruto ordered as he sat down on the couch, preparing himself for the memories to attack his brain.</p>
<p>Naruto sat in a meditating position; when he realized that meditating helped a lot in dealing with the memory onslaught of all the clones, he began using it regularly. Going through the memories quickly, he said “the other five who were gathering information, dispel.”</p>
<p>Naruto grinned when he sorted through the memories, having information on what was going on in the village and in the neighboring elemental countries gave him a sense of self-satisfaction. He felt as if now, other people would have to try harder to catch him off guard.</p>
<p>Naruto’s lips twisted in a sneer when the nagging sensation of being watched refused to leave his mind. He subtly turned to look out the window, but there was no one there. Shrugging tiredly, he went back to work. <em>‘Must be my imagination.’</em></p>
<p>After having his late lunch, Naruto went through the memories of those who were learning about his father’s taijutsu style and found the notes on physical conditioning ready for him at the table, which was in front of the couch. Following that, he tackled the memories of those clones that were learning sealing.</p>
<p>Naruto went through all the taijutsu katas, which his clones had read about and the necessary physical exercises to increase his speed and stamina. He found out that his father’s taijutsu style mainly consisted of getting inside the enemy’s guard and then strike using speed to accelerate his movements.</p>
<p>When Naruto finally noticed the time, he dragged his feet to the Ichiraku Ramen stand and gulped down at least seven bowls. He had a friendly chat/banter with Ayame-neechan and Teuchi-san. They both wished him luck for his training.</p>
<p>Naruto went back to his house and practiced the basic kanji symbols that were required in making seals. He practiced for what felt like hours, and then finally jumped into bed.</p>
<p>Glancing at the white full moon, from his window, Naruto released a sigh. He had never had such a productive day before.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘I am going to spend every day practicing just like today. I will only attend the academy when they were going to have taijutsu spars. So that no-one would notices that I am sending a clone instead of attending the lectures myself. It’s not my fault that the lectures were boring, whereas tou-chan’s taijutsu is certainly interesting.’</em>
</p>
<p>Slightly pausing his inner monologue, Naruto prayed for his parents and buried himself deep in the covers, trying to go back to the dreamland where his parents would greet him with their ever-vibrant smiles.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>The entire year went by with Naruto practicing his ass off. There were many a times when he just couldn’t get the thing right, but he had refused to give up. He had after all decided to do everything in his power to reach the stage his parents had wanted for him.</p>
<p>Finally, it was time for graduation.</p>
<p>They had the graduation test the next day and Naruto was sitting in the class thinking about what to do with Mizuki. He had always had a feeling that Mizuki was up to something.</p>
<p>This Naruto inside the classroom however was just a clone. The original was practicing taijutsu in his house, well his parent’s house to be exact. Naruto brought whatever stuff he held dear, back to the Namikaze house and started living there after about three months into training. Ten Naruto clones were practicing advanced storage scrolls with non-chakra ink, of course, the original didn’t want to blow more stuff up. Twenty of his clones were practicing chakra control by walking on water while floating the blunt tip of the kunai just a few centimeters above his hands with just his chakra. And twenty others were all around the village in different henge.</p>
<p>When the original Naruto found out that his henge was not an illusion but a physical transformation, he searched all the information he could about the technique in his mother’s notes. Now there were no shinobi in henge around the village, Kakashi had almost caught him one time, so he started to have his clones transform into animals.</p>
<p>The Naruto-clone looked around the classroom, bored. Shikamaru was snoozing on his right side with Choji right next to him munching on some chips. Shino sat on his left side quietly paying attention to the lecture. The original Naruto made friends with all three of them and started hanging out with them whenever he was free from training.</p>
<p>Shikamaru and Shino had figured out Naruto was just pretending to be dumb and was actually smart. Both of them along with Choji had seen the partial treatment the villagers give their blond classmate. All of them trained together some times.</p>
<p>Naruto quickly became familiar with all the three clans. He coaxed Choji and Shikamaru into training, telling them about the harsh shinobi life that they would one day lead. He brought Shino out of his shell, even if it was just in front of them, it still counted. He told all three of them about his suspicions towards Mizuki, and they swore that they would help him.</p>
<p>After leaving the academy, Naruto-clone quickly ran towards the original and sat down awaiting further orders. The original after practice, dispelled the clones in an orderly fashion.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Naruto after getting himself something to eat, went back in the dojo and started practicing his sealing. Following a few more hours of practice Naruto finally went to sleep, quite happy with his day.</p>
<p>One of Naruto’s clones that was tailing Mizuki finally found some evidence. He watched the entire scene carefully before dispelling.</p>
<p>In his house, Naruto woke up when memories of a clone suddenly assaulted him. His brows furrowed as he took in Mizuki’s motive to be overly friendly with him. Naruto figured this was question of village security and didn’t want to gamble with it. Resolutely, Naruto made his way to the Hokage’s residence. The ANBU on duty stopped him and told him that whatever it was he wanted to talk to the Hokage about would have to wait till morning. Naruto stood there for a few minutes contemplating what to do when a familiar purple haired ANBU appeared in front of him.</p>
<p>“Cat-san!” Naruto exclaimed.</p>
<p>“Go back to your post Rabbit, I’ll handle this.” Cat ordered in a monotone before turning to Naruto. “What are doing here at this hour Naruto-kun?”</p>
<p>Naruto motioned for the ANBU to bend down as he cupped his hands around his mouth. “I have to tell Hokage-sama something. This is for the village security. There is a traitor amongst us,”</p>
<p>Cat straightened as she stared at Naruto for a few seconds. Naruto had made sure to address the Hokage by his title, to get his point across.</p>
<p>“This is not something to joke about Naruto-kun,”</p>
<p>Naruto groaned, “I am not joking! Please let me talk to Hokage-sama,”</p>
<p>A few seconds later, Naruto found himself inside the Hokage residence with Hiruzen sitting behind the desk in his home office.</p>
<p>“What did you want to tell me about Naruto?” Hiruzen asked patiently.</p>
<p>Naruto looked at the ANBU detail inside the room pointedly then turned towards the Hokage.</p>
<p>“You can speak freely Naruto,”</p>
<p>“Okay… Mizuki-sensei is a traitor.” Naruto announced. He waited for some type of response but other than the Hokage narrowing his eyes at him, he got nothing.</p>
<p>“Do you have proof?” Hiruzen asked in a grave tone.</p>
<p>Naruto shook his head in denial but spoke quickly before anyone could deny his claim. “Iruka-sensei didn’t outright say it, but when he taught me during the academy break, he and I realized that Mizuki-sensei taught me wrong taijutsu on purpose,” Naruto paused. “Though he is not the only one who has ever sabotaged my education.” he murmured before looking at Hokage in the eyes.</p>
<p>“I have been suspicious of him since then and kept wary of him. Today I found him scouting this place. He muttered something about making me steal it for him.”</p>
<p>“Steal what?” Hiruzen asked.</p>
<p>Out of the corner of his eyes, Naruto was utterly astonished to see that not even one ANBU had so much as twitched. He wondered how much restraint would it take for a shinobi to have that much control over their body.</p>
<p>“I don’t know, but whatever it is, he is assured that I will manage to steal it.”</p>
<p>Hiruzen was silent for a few minutes before he said, “Okay then, this is what I want you to do Naruto.”</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Naruto walked inside the examination room when it was his turn. He did everything as he was asked but failed to make a decent bunshin. The jutsu needed very less chakra and Naruto, no matter how hard he trained, didn’t have the required control for it. He thought about making a Kage bunshin but then he would have to tell everyone where he learned it from, and that was a big no-no.</p>
<p>Iruka had to fail Naruto, he didn’t have a choice. As he watched the crestfallen expression on Naruto, he mentally cursed himself for not teaching the boy properly even though he knew about his condition.</p>
<p>Naruto sat on the empty swing and tried not to look at any of the enjoying families. He was soon joined by Mizuki, who told Naruto about one more way to graduate.</p>
<p>
  <em>‘The cat’s finally out of the bag.’</em>
</p>
<p>Naruto informed his friends about his plans and went to the Hokage residence. He narrated his chat with Mizuki and left with one of his clones henged into the Forbidden scroll, that Mizuki had asked him to steal, and waited for the traitor to show up. His friends too were in the clearing hidden in various places, but then suddenly Iruka-sensei popped out of a bush.</p>
<p>“Naruto! How can you do this?” Iruka asked him.</p>
<p>“Iruka-sensei what are you doing here? I am waiting for Mizuki-sensei, he said that he would pass me if I gave him this scroll, which I brought from the Hokage residence.” Naruto answered, looking around to see if Mizuki was already here.</p>
<p>Naruto tried to come up with a plan to get Iruka-sensei back to safety. He had assumed the Hokage had already briefed Iruka about this.</p>
<p>“Naruto, there is no way you will pass like this!” Iruka yelled.</p>
<p>“Well well Naruto, I was hoping you would be all alone,” Naruto heard Mizuki say and turned around just in time to duck from a hail of shuriken.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Iruka-sensei didn’t think he would be able to escape that and came up in front of him to protect him from Mizuki.</p>
<p>“GO Naruto! I will handle him… GO! Get that scroll back to Hokage-sama.” Iruka ordered. He turned to Mizuki with a furious look, “I will not let you hurt Naruto, Mizuki.”</p>
<p>“Why are you protecting that demon brat Iruka! I thought you hated him. He is the reason your parents are dead. He is the Jinchuriki of the Kyubi!” Mizuki shouted.</p>
<p>Upon hearing that Iruka-sensei hated him, Naruto forgot how to move. He just stood there, rooted to the spot. He forgot this was all a farce and that ANBU would be here soon. Iruka was one of the few people who, Naruto considered, truly cared about him. But now, he was not so sure. He was broken out of him musings when he heard Iruka.</p>
<p>“I know what he is. He is my most prized student. He is Uzumaki Naruto, Genin of Konoha!”</p>
<p>At that moment his friends burst into the clearing and moved to help him and Iruka-sensei.</p>
<p>“This is troublesome, I always knew there was something else,” Shikamaru said, getting out of his hiding place.</p>
<p>“We will not let you hurt Naruto, why? Cause he is our friend,” Shino added standing side by side with Choji and Shikamaru.</p>
<p>“You brats! I will not let you ruin my plan! I will take that scroll off of your dead body if I have to, I guess I will have to kill you all.” Mizuki replied maliciously.</p>
<p>Just the thought of his friends and his sensei getting hurt made Naruto’s blood boil.</p>
<p>Mizuki attacked but Naruto was faster. He punched Mizuki in the gut with so much force that he heard a few of the guy’s ribs break upon contact. He then proceeded to beat the pulp out of the man who was once his instructor. He only stopped when he heard Iruka-sensei’s soft “Stop”. Then ANBU came and took the man away.</p>
<p>“Come here Naruto and close your eyes.” Naruto silently walked towards his sensei, disturbingly aware that he had blood on his clothes. He felt a rustle of fabric over his head and opened his eyes to see Iruka-sensei smiling down on him, but there was an important thing missing. With wide-eyes Naruto touched his forehead only to feel the cool metal plate of the Konoha Hitai-ate beneath his fingertips. He hugged Iruka-sensei tightly with a few tears sliding down his cheeks.</p>
<p>“We meant what we said Naruto, you are our friend. And this discussion is not over, but we can catch up later. Right now, we need to take Iruka-sensei to the hospital.” Shikamaru said, to which Naruto nodded.</p>
<p>Shino, Shikamaru, and Choji took Iruka-sensei to the hospital while Naruto went to brief Hokage-sama about the whole ordeal.</p>
<p>After giving the Hokage a brief description, Naruto made his way towards the memorial stone and sat down in front of it, looking at his parents’ names. His friends and sensei’s words were still buzzing inside Naruto’s head. He finally understood what his father had meant in his diary when he said, that the people we hold dear are not our weakness but our strength. He finally found people who cared about him and he would do everything in his power to protect them. A few tears rolled out of his eyes but he wiped them swiftly when he heard a crunch of leaves near him.</p>
<p>“Hey Kakashi-san, what’s up? Long time no see,” Naruto said casually, looking the other way trying not to let Kakashi see that he had been crying. He gave a slight chuckle upon not hearing anything in return from the older shinobi. “As silent as ever, I see. Well, I have to go and… I am very sorry for your loss,”</p>
<p>Naruto saw Kakashi give him a questioning glance. Even with three-fourth of his face covered, his confusion was quite easy to catch. So, Naruto continued. “I read about your father and your team. Tou-chan wrote about it in his diary. He wanted me to tell you that he is very sorry for not protecting you all like he had promised. He also said that you shouldn’t blame yourself for whatever happens during my birth. Kaa-chan said that she will always watch over us… and that she will hurt you if you give me Icha Icha as a birthday present. She must have thought that at least you will be there on my birthdays,”</p>
<p>“Had they been alive… we would have… I would have…” Kakashi stuttered.</p>
<p>“…been like an older brother to me.” Naruto said, completing Kakashi’s sentence. “I don’t care how you would have acted towards me, had they been alive. Because they are not. They gave their lives just so that we could live to see another day. So please, keep your excuses to yourself. I have work to do, see you around Kakashi-san.”</p>
<p>After that statement, Naruto left for home. He went to sleep with only one thought in mind.</p>
<p>‘<em>I am a genin now. It’s my turn to protect the village. Just you wait Tou-chan, Kaa-chan. I will make you proud.’</em></p>
<p>---------------------------------------------</p>
<p>Kakashi watched Naruto slip into his covers and go to sleep. Don’t think about Kakashi as a pedo, he was only making sure that the boy was okay. He had just heard about the uproar with the Forbidden Scroll. A few minutes passed by and Kakashi decided to head back home. He thought about the time he first noticed the boy off-duty.</p>
<p>Kakashi had just returned from a mission and was on his way towards the memorial stone with his trusty Icha Icha in hand. He had always suppressed his chakra while awake, even in the village. His paranoia ran deeper than he thought it did. When he reached training ground three, he heard a few grunts of frustration and looked up, suppressing his chakra even further. What he saw confused him at first.</p>
<p>Kakashi saw Uzumaki Naruto trying to walk up a tree, and there was a book lying near the base of the tree.</p>
<p><em>‘Ahh… the boy is trying to learn tree-walking. It’s not taught in the academy. It’s a genin level skill, something an academy student shouldn’t know of. Then where did he find the book? Last I heard the boy was the dead last in his class.’ </em>Kakashi thought.</p>
<p>Kakashi shut his book close and looked over to the boy, a little intrigued. Naruto had just sat down in front of the memorial stone with a huff only to stand up again and run towards it with a wide-eyed expression.</p>
<p>Kakashi pressed closer to make sense of the entire situation. He saw Naruto move around the stone, trying to read all the names, he had guessed. For a few minutes Kakashi saw Naruto stare at the stone, a lot of emotions crossing his face with confusion being the prominent one. When Naruto left Kakashi’s line of sight, he put all the information at the back of his mind and proceeded to carry out his day as usual.</p>
<p>The next day Kakashi had been giving the Hokage his mission report when he felt Naruto’s chakra again, he asked if he should leave but the Hokage denied, saying his report was far too important. He had noticed Naruto give him a curious glance as if asking the Hokage, if he should speak in Kakashi’s presence. He had been slightly astonished when Naruto enquired about his last name; that was when Kakashi figured out that Naruto had read his mother’s name on the memorial stone yesterday and wanted some information. He knew that the Hokage would deny any request Naruto made to know more about his parents.</p>
<p>After his report Kakashi went to the memorial stone again and was joined by Naruto after a few hours. He greeted Naruto in a casual tone to which the boy replied with a polite greeting of his own. They had both fallen into a mutually agreed silence which Kakashi broke, surprising himself in the process, by asking mundane questions to his companion.</p>
<p>When Kakashi asked the boy for his name, just for pretense, he was again surprised by the boy’s reply and question in return but he kept his composure. He hadn’t known at the time that Naruto knew about his Jinchuriki status. Kakashi had realized where the conversation was heading and contemplated whether to answer Naruto’s question about his last name or not. When Naruto asked him a question which he could answer without technically breaking the Hokage’s rule, he willingly obliged. He had even entertained Naruto with another clue and left via sunshin, leaving the boy alone with his thoughts.</p>
<p>Kakashi waited to see if Naruto would figure out his clue or not. In the meantime, Kakashi gathered some information about the boy. He had been certainly intrigued by Naruto’s sudden change in demeanor. He had figured that Naruto must have felt something after learning about his burden and decided to change himself. He had been taken aback a little when he heard that one of the chunin instructors had personally taught Naruto during the first two weeks of their vacation from the academy and that the academy librarian was fired due to his partial behavior towards the boy. When Kakashi heard about Naruto’s prank, he maintained a straight face but he was cackling internally about the boy’s specific choice of words that were written in the Yamanaka clan heiress’s book and his color choice for the civilian born.</p>
<p>As soon as Kakashi found Naruto rummaging through the storage room, he concluded that Naruto had figured out his clue. He figured Naruto would confront him again sooner or later and was not disappointed. After two days he was standing near the memorial stone when he felt Naruto’s chakra behind him and heard a groan.</p>
<p><em>‘So, he was looking for me all over the village, huh…’</em> Kakashi thought.</p>
<p>They had been standing in relative silence for some time before Naruto spoke up. Kakashi at first was slightly irritated at the blond boy’s dumb question that he couldn’t answer. He thought that Naruto had finally figured out who his parents were. To his amusement Naruto had figured out who his parents were, the boy just wanted some confirmation. Since Naruto now knew who his parents were, Kakashi was free to talk to him about them. He told Naruto about his relation to the boy’s parents.</p>
<p>Naruto’s sudden promise to his parents and his attitude towards the fallen soldiers had left Kakashi wide-eyed, though he had schooled his features back to indifference before Naruto turned around. The boy had quietly thanked Kakashi and left with a soft goodbye.</p>
<p>Now highly intrigued, Kakashi had wondered what Naruto would do after knowing his parent’s identity. <em>‘Would he tell the Hokage or keep mum about his findings just like he had been with his abilities till now’</em></p>
<p>Kakashi had seen Naruto’s routine in the morning and he had been quite impressed with the boy’s capabilities. He didn’t see Naruto at all the next few days after the big revelation. He was surprised to hear that the boy skipped academy and walked around to find out the cause. But he found the boy practicing in training ground three, very early the next morning.</p>
<p>Kakashi gasped, <em>‘Those seals! He is trying to learn how to make a kage-bunshin? But why? Why does an academy student want to learn a kinjutsu and where did he find it anyway? I wonder if he knows the true use of Kage Bunshin and how he can use them to increase the rate of his training.’</em></p>
<p>Kakashi had come to inform his team and elder sister figure about Naruto. He decided to help the boy, so he had purposefully made his presence known and walked towards the memorial stone all the while yelling out some stupid excuse to make a clone himself. He had turned to face Naruto and made all the hand signs carefully making sure that Naruto could see them from his spot behind the tree. His clone then left and dispelled itself out of sight. He had felt Naruto leave his vicinity and walk towards a direction which Kakashi knew did not lead to the boy’s house.</p>
<p><em>‘But… that path leads to…’ </em>Kakashi eyes slightly widened upon connecting the dots, he was left jaw slacked before a small smile made its way to his face. ‘<em>So that’s the reason why he skipped academy. He found his father’s estate. I clearly underestimated him.’</em></p>
<p>Kakashi had left the boy to his own devices after that. He saw Naruto again the next morning giving out orders to about thirty clones. Naruto had his back towards him so he couldn’t listen to the orders except for the last one, something about ‘how a shinobi should act’, when he got closer.</p>
<p>After a few hours Kakashi had been walking towards the book store to see if a new copy of Icha Icha was out, when he felt something. He knew something was out of place. He looked around subtly trying to find out what. There was a shinobi hanging around a group of chunin. He was just sitting there and looking around. Kakashi had never seen the man before and something about the man unsettled him. The man was wearing a henge, Kakashi had realized. He had been about to apprehend the shinobi when the man walked away. Kakashi had followed him and extended his senses to see who the person was. He had been astounded to see that it was Naruto. Naruto was roaming around the village in a henge. <em>‘Now why would he do that?’</em></p>
<p>Then Naruto’s earlier words to his clones replayed in his mind. <em>‘So he is learning how to act like a shinobi by watching the others.’</em></p>
<p>Kakashi had finally found Naruto in his parent’s house going through the memories of all the clones. Naruto had tried to subtly turn to look out the window but he was not subtle enough to fool Kakashi.</p>
<p>Kakashi had patiently sat with Naruto during his training, whether it may be his father’s taijutsu style or sealing. He hadn’t tried to help Naruto after the Bunshin jutsu in training ground three; he would just sit around him a few times during training.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Upon reaching his home, Kakashi quickly changed for bed. But the conversation he had had with Naruto just now, near the memorial stone, was still ringing in his head.</p>
<p>Kakashi now knew what he was going to do. He had been running away from his responsibilities, and if he maintained this kind of action towards Naruto, Minato-sensei would pour wrath on him, upon him reaching the afterlife. He decided that he would teach Naruto all the shinobi ways that the boy’s parents had once taught him. Happy with his decision, Kakashi fell into one of his rare times of blissful sleep.</p>
<p>The next morning saw Kakashi in the Hokage’s office before the scheduled time. He knew that the Hokage would again assign him a team this year, but this time he knew who he wanted as a student.</p>
<p>The Hokage was surprised out of his wits when he saw Kakashi standing in front of him. There was no one else in the office.</p>
<p>Kakashi was EARLY!</p>
<p>Even the ANBU in the room were surprised to see their former member so early.</p>
<p>Kakashi had a reputation of never being on time, but the situation right now was kind of dire. He had to come early to make sure that Naruto’s team was assigned to him. The Hokage looked at Kakashi as if he was from another dimension.</p>
<p>“I assure you Hokage-sama, I am the real Hatake Kakashi and not an imposter. I need to talk to you about some important matters.”</p>
<p>Hiruzen heard the urgency in Kakashi’s voice and send all of his ANBU out to find out what in the world has happened to one of his best shinobi.</p>
<p>“I am sure you have a team ready for me to test, I just want to know who they are before everyone else,” Kakashi requested.</p>
<p>“I have Team 7 for you and there is a lot of pressure from the civilian council that you pass this team no matter what. It is composed of Uchiha Sasuke, rookie of the year; Haruno Sakura, the top kunoichi and Inuzuka Kiba, dead last of the class.”</p>
<p>“With all due respect Hokage-sama, I want to ask you how teams were made this year,”</p>
<p>“Well, I can’t break the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, with all of them being clan heirs this year. Then Hyuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, and Uzumaki Naruto are a team. I am sure these are the only students you want to know about.” Hiruzen said, already understanding what Kakashi wanted.</p>
<p>“I would like to state something freely with your permission Hokage-sama,” Kakashi said in a monotone. He continued when the Hokage waved his hand. “I will not pass a team just because the civilian council ordered me too. They will pass on their own merit. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio this year will be the same as their parents, and the others Hyuga, Aburame, and Inuzuka clan heirs would make a classic tracking team if put together. With Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto, the two powerhouses, I can make them into an attack team that this village needs. With my exceptional skills I can transform them into better shinobi.”</p>
<p>“So… to summarize, you want Naruto on your team. Is that it?”</p>
<p>“Yes, Hokage-sama and I can even keep the Kyubi on a leash with my Sharingan,”</p>
<p>“Fine, you have valid points. I will change the teams, but do not make me regret this Kakashi. Now Team 7 will be Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. Team 8 will be Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, and Hyuga Hinata.” Hiruzen paused, he looked at Kakashi with narrowed eyes, “Anything else I should know about Kakashi?”</p>
<p>“No Hokage-sama, that is all. Thank you very much.”</p>
<p>“You can go now, tell Umino Iruka, their instructor about the team changes and then come back.”</p>
<p>“Hai Hokage-sama”</p>
<p>Following that statement Kakashi dropped in the academy, caught the instructor, and told him the changes in the teams. Then he went back to the Hokage’s office just a few minutes late, like half an hour, he had a reputation to keep after all.</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>When Kakashi entered the room, the Hokage looked at him with a small smirk on his face. They all looked at the scene happening in the classroom with the Hokage’s crystal ball. Kakashi couldn’t help but feel pride in his future student’s words. At least Naruto knew what being a shinobi meant. The other two would learn. He narrowed his eyes at the pink one. He had a lot of work to do in the future. He could see that all the jonin were looking at their potential students with something akin to disappointment. <em>‘Not many students will be passing this year’</em></p>
<p>“I didn’t expect Uzumaki to give such a strong speech” Kurenai stated.</p>
<p>“I thought he was the dead last of the class” Asuma said.</p>
<p>Hiruzen cleared his throat before answering, “He was, until last year. He is somewhere in the middle of the class rankings now, an average student. Okay… now that you have seen your potential students. Your teams are, Team 1… Team 7 Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura with jonin leader Hatake Kakashi; Team 8 Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba and Hyuga Hinata with jonin leader Yuhi Kurenai and since team 9 is still in rotation, finally Team 10 Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Choji and Yamanaka Ino with jonin leader Sarutobi Asuma. Good luck everyone.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Every Moment is a New Beginning</strong>
</p><p>Before going to the academy, Naruto visited the graveyard first. He used henge no jutsu to look like Kakashi and mentally apologized to the man. Before putting flowers on his parent’s graves, he cleaning them thoroughly. He told his parents about his big day before bowing in front of the grave.</p><p>When Naruto entered the academy it was relatively quiet, he noticed. Sitting down in the last row, he decided to wait for his friends but he soon got bored of waiting and seeing as not many people were in the class, he opened his book on seal theory and started reading.</p><p>After a few minutes, loud screeches broke Naruto’s concentration and he closed the book with a thump. He glared at Ino and Sakura, who were once again fighting on who entered the class first. He shook his head and looked around for his friends when suddenly Sakura screeched at him.</p><p>“Get up Naruto! I am going to sit next to Sasuke-kun,”</p><p>Naruto grimaced at the girl’s voice. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that the last Uchiha was glaring out the window beside him. Naruto hadn’t even known that he was sitting beside the bastard. “Sakura-san please… tone it down a little, your voice is hurting everyone who has sensitive hearing, even Sasuke-teme doesn’t like it,”</p><p>“Naruto how dare you call Sasuke-kun a bastard?” Sakura yelled again and then tried to bonk Naruto on the head. But Naruto caught her fist easily and pushed her back. Sakura glared at him from where she was standing.</p><p>“Stop it Haruno-san. I am warning you for the last time,” Naruto’s ice-cold voice stopped Sakura in her tracks. <em>‘I let her off easy last time but not today. She needs to know her place.’</em></p><p>Naruto stood up and looked her straight in eye, applying slight pressure on her hand that he was still holding, and saw a bit of fear reflect in them. “Get your shit together Haruno-san. You and I are both genin now and hurting a fellow Konoha shinobi outside of training is considered as an offense here. I can have you arrested and court-martialed,” Naruto paused, he chanced a glance at the Uchiha beside him, “If you are going to act like a pathetic fangirl over a boy who, might I add, is not even interested in you, then I suggest that you get out of the shinobi program now before you get yourself killed on the first mission outside the village walls or worse, get your team-mates killed and then you would have to live with their blood on your hands for the rest of your life. Is that the kind of life you wish to lead? You are an abomination to every kunoichi who takes her profession seriously.”</p><p>Naruto let go of Sakura’s hand and sat down next to Shikamaru who had entered the class just before he threatened Haruno. Then Iruka-sensei came in and looked around worriedly as he found the class already dead silent.</p><p>“Okay… seeing as you are all quiet already, let’s start the day. You have all become genin now. You have faced a lot of hardships in reaching this position but this was nothing. The real hardships are going to come now. All genin are grouped into three-man squads with a jonin leader. I am now going to announce the squads, listen carefully.”</p><p>After the announcement of squads, Naruto groaned and put his heads in his hands. <em>‘I didn’t know my bad luck would be this bad that I would be teamed up with the Uchiha-teme and the pink banshee. On the other hand, having Kakashi-san as a sensei is beyond my imagination. I can learn a lot from him and complete my promise to my parents.’ </em></p><p>“Tough luck Naruto. I can understand how you feel to an extent I guess, since I have a fangirl on my team too. This is so troublesome,” Shikamaru said.</p><p>“Yeah, but you knew this would happen Shika. Hell we all knew this would happen and you at least have Choji. Shino is the only lucky one. He doesn’t have a fangirl on his team. In comparison to them Hinata is an angel. Shino make sure that you encourage her, alright? She just needs someone who believes in her and she will make a great ally,” Naruto said.</p><p>“I will. But what I find amusing is how you know so much about Hinata-san Naruto, why? Because you have never paid attention to her before, have you started to like her?” Shino asked. Choji happily munched on his chips, looking at Naruto with a smile.</p><p>“What? Nooo, of course not. I am just stating it on what I observed. That’s it guys, I swear!” Naruto said. All three of his friends just made the ‘mmhmm’ sound, showing that they did not believe him at all.</p><p>Naruto groaned again and watched as most of the sensei came and took their students with them. Naruto was alone in the class with the duck-butt and pink banshee waiting for his sensei to arrive. He had obviously heard of Kakashi-san’s annoying habit of being late. He again opened his book and started studying. He was halfway through the lesson when Kakashi strolled in.</p><p>Naruto looked up and sighed, “Seriously sensei… did you have to be three hours late?”</p><p>“My first expression of you is… you are boring. Meet me at the roof in five minutes.” Kakashi stated and disappeared.</p><p>Naruto took a deep breath through the nose, trying to control his irritation at the man and closed his book. He looked up to see both Sakura and Sasuke staring at him with a confused expression. “Well he is already late. We should at least hurry shouldn’t we?”</p><p>They all made their way towards the roof and opened the door to find Kakashi lazing on the railing. He gestured for them to sit. Naruto sat on one corner of the steps in front of the railing, with Sakura in the other corner leaving Sasuke to sit in the middle.</p><p>“Okay now, let’s start with introductions. Pinky you start.” Kakashi said.</p><p>“What do you want us to say sensei?” Sakura asked.</p><p>“You know… name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for future, stuff like that”</p><p>Naruto looked at Kakashi, still annoyed at the man, “Why don’t you go first <strong>Sensei</strong>?”</p><p>If Kakashi realized the meaning behind Naruto stressing his position in the team, he didn’t show it. “My name is Hatake Kakashi… I am not going to tell you my likes and dislikes…you are still too young to know about my hobbies, and dreams for the future… I don’t know, I never thought that far. Now pinky you start.”</p><p>Sakura obliged readily “My name is Haruno Sakura and what I like is…” looks at Sasuke “gardening… I guess. My hobby is…” turning to look at Sasuke “reading! Yes reading, and dreams for the future are… ” again looks at Sasuke “uhh to be a good kunoichi… I think.”</p><p> “You think?” Kakashi mumbled, “and your dislikes?” he asked in a louder tone.</p><p>“Ino-pig and… and people who bully others,”</p><p>Kakashi turned towards Sasuke and said “Broody you’re up.”</p><p>Sasuke glowered at Kakashi for a few minutes before saying “Uchiha Sasuke, I don’t have many likes and there are a lot of things I hate. My hobby is training and I wouldn’t call it a dream because I will make it into reality and that is to restore my clan and kill a certain man without fail.”</p><p><em>‘Woah… morbid much? Well finally it’s my turn.’</em> Naruto thought.</p><p>“Blondie,”</p><p>“My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I like training and ramen and Fuinjutsu, I hate politics and people who form opinions about others without even knowing them, as for my hobbies…  gardening, I guess. My dream for the future right now is to complete my promise to certain people.”</p><p>Naruto could see Kakashi hesitate slightly before dropping the metamorphical bomb, telling them they are not genin yet, and that they would have to pass whatever test he puts them through to achieve the rank. Naruto turned towards his so-called teammates; brows furrowed as his mind went through several test cases.</p><p><em>‘How can he take a survival test if he tells us not to eat? Wait a minute… he didn’t *tell* us not to eat, he suggested us not to eat.’</em> Naruto looked up just in time to see Sasuke and Sakura leaving and thought that he should at least inform them, they can do whatever they like after that.</p><p>“Wait Sasuke, Haruno-san. I think we should eat before we show up at the training ground,” he said.</p><p>“Naruto, Kakashi-sensei told us not to eat. We can’t disobey a direct order,” Sakura said annoyed.</p><p>Sasuke didn’t even deign a response.</p><p>“Kakashi-sensei suggested that we shouldn’t eat. He didn’t order us. And I am going to eat, you can do whatever you want, cause the last time we had a survival test in the academy they taught us about the importance of food for a shinobi. Goodbye.” Naruto said and left. He figured that he might get a clue about Kakashi’s test in his father’s diary.</p><p>----</p><p>‘The Bell Test’. That was what the test was called. His father did write about how his students fought but didn’t write anything about what the test was. He wrote that the test was created by the Nidaime who taught the Sanidaime’s team and then Sandaime took the same test when he taught his team which consisted of Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya, and Jiraiya too tested his father’s team with the bell test.</p><p><em>‘It’s weird how he has written that all of his students attacked him separately then together, as if they realized that they were doing something wrong or maybe someone else was pulling their strings. Ughhh… I can’t make anything out of this. I would have to find out about the test tomorrow. Let’s see if my clones can find anything.’</em> Naruto made a clone that poofed out of existence just as it was created.</p><p>
  <em>‘Mission: Find out about Kakashi-sensei’s bell test.’</em>
</p><p>The next morning Naruto had a hearty breakfast and got dressed for his team meet up. He wore a dark blue t-shirt under a black jacket which had the Uzumaki symbol in orange in the back center and the Namikaze crest was stitched on the front of his t-shirt, but he zipped his jacket since he didn’t want anyone to know about his parentage yet, with dark blue pants that had orange stripes, strapped to blue flat shinobi sandals with white tape.</p><p>Naruto put the scrolls in his pant pocket that he had started to keep on his person a few months back to have his supplies ready for any emergency. It contained all the basic necessities like extra shuriken, kunai, spools of ninja wire, exploding tags, a few fuma shuriken, some chakra pills and readymade food, a basic medicine kit, a few empty scrolls and charka conductive ink and, of course, his sealing books. He never goes anywhere without them. He always has a book on sealing on his person. After checking his equipment once more he left for training ground three.</p><p>On his way, Naruto thought about the test. His clones couldn’t gather much information. Just that the bell test is very tough and that Kakashi-sensei looks for specific abilities in a genin. He just hoped he would pass whatever criteria his sensei had created for genin teams. His clones had talked to his friends, Shikamaru, Shino, and Choji yesterday, but they just found out that all jonin sensei take a test called ‘the real genin test’ and only upon passing that specific test will they be allowed to be called genin and go on missions. All jonin sensei had their specific tests that no one knew about, and even if they did, they won’t tell anybody about it.  He reached the training ground at quarter to seven, even though he knew that Kakashi-sensei would not show up until 10, but one can never be too sure with Kakashi-sensei.</p><p>Sasuke and Sakura were already there sitting near the three wooden stumps, in the clearing. And as usual Sasuke was glaring at air itself while Sakura was edging closer to him slowly. Naruto just shook his head and sat down near the third stump, keeping his team-mates at a distance.</p><p>After waiting for almost half an hour he took out his book and started studying. He hadn’t gone through his usual physical routine because he thought that he should save his energy for whatever Kakashi-sensei had planned for them, so he could at least study while waiting. After almost two hours Naruto saw Sasuke stand up and move away from the pink banshee.</p><p>“Just how late is he planning to be?” Sasuke yelled.</p><p>“I have heard that Kakashi-sensei never shows up on time. And that he is at least two‒three hours late to most meetings,” Naruto answered calmly.</p><p>“Well, I don’t have time to waste for him like this. I need to become stronger. He can’t make an Uchiha wait for him,”</p><p>“He makes the Hokage wait for him, you are nothing in comparison,”</p><p>“How dare you compare me to anyone Uzumaki? And what the hell are you reading?”</p><p>“It’s called a book. I am sure you have read a few before,”</p><p>“Don’t be cocky with me Uzumaki. I am an elite Uchiha. I have no doubt that whatever you are reading is not worth my time,”</p><p>“uh hun”</p><p>Naruto wanted to blow up at the boy for insulting Fuinjutsu but he was too busy learning about sealing structures. When the Uchiha wouldn’t stop staring at him, he groaned and closed his book and sealed it back in the scroll. He turned around to give the duck-butt a piece of his mind.</p><p>“Look Uchiha, I don’t wanna be in a team with you and the pink banshee any more than you wanna be with me. But I didn’t select the teams, the Hokage did. And if you have a problem with it, then go talk to the Hokage. What are you glaring at me for?”</p><p>“How did you do that?”</p><p>Naruto gave Sasuke a confused look, “do what?”</p><p>“The book, how did you…”</p><p>Naruto sighed before answering. “I sealed it in a sealing scroll. You can get them at the shinobi appliances shop in the market near the central library. It does make carrying a lot of stuff easier.”</p><p>Sasuke glared at Naruto further, “How did you know that?”</p><p>“Iruka-sensei taught us about the basics of sealing, and about the shinobi shops in his class.”</p><p>“Since when do you listen in a class?”</p><p>“Unless you haven’t noticed, I am not the dead last anymore. I am going to work hard to achieve my dream and I suggest you do the same instead of lording around.”</p><p>Sasuke’s retort died on his lips as they heard Kakashi-sensei’s voice.</p><p>“Well, well, well, would you look at that, arguing with your team-mates just before the test? Now both of you better tell me why I should even allow you to take the genin test and not fail you lot right now.”</p><p>“We’re sorry sensei, but we were not arguing. We were just talking about something. Just give us another chance,” Naruto begged. He didn’t want to fail again. He had a promise to fulfill.</p><p>“Sasuke?” Kakashi asked.</p><p>“Sorry sensei,” Sasuke mumbled even though it pained him to say it.</p><p>“Alright, I will give you another chance. You guys see these bells? You all have time till this alarm goes off,” Kakashi pointed towards a clock in his hands “to get them from me. If you don’t, then I will fail you and tie to the posts while I eat lunch right in front of you.” Kakashi paused to hear grumbles from their stomachs but nothing happened. “Huh… I thought I told you not to eat anything. When a superior gives you an order you are supposed to carry it out not utterly ignore it,”</p><p>“You didn’t order us sensei, you suggested us to not eat anything or we will throw it up. We just didn’t take your suggestion,” Naruto answered calmly.</p><p>“And what if I had ordered you to not eat anything?” Kakashi asked.</p><p>“Then we would have brought something and ate it after the test started,” Sasuke replied.</p><p>“Aren’t you all a smart bunch? What you did is correct. If someone tells you something or gives you an explicit order, it’s your job as a shinobi to find out all the loopholes and carry out your duty accordingly with your team’s and your village’s best interests in mind. Always look underneath the underneath. That is your first lesson.”</p><p>“But sensei, you only have two bells.” Sakura said.</p><p>“Then I will only pass the two who can get the bells and fail the other.” Kakashi explained further.  The three genin stilled at his words. “Now let’s start the test.”</p><p>Naruto quickly hid himself in the nearby bushes. Something about Kakashi-sensei’s words puzzled him. He knew he wouldn’t be able to beat Kakashi-sensei; that man had been a jonin since he was thirteen and he had been in ANBU too. There were also no records of a three-man cell consisting of two genin and a jonin.</p><p>Naruto looked at Kakashi, from his position when his sensei’s previous words and whatever was written in his father’s diary about the bell test finally made sense to him. He made 30 clones and ordered them to keep Kakashi occupied.</p><p>Naruto found Sasuke on a tree branch glaring at the fight happening in front of him.</p><p>“Pssst… Sasuke,” Naruto whispered.</p><p>“What the hell are you doing here dobe? If you are here, then who is fighting there? Bunshin can’t fight, they aren’t solid,” Sasuke hissed.</p><p>“That isn’t a normal bunshin teme. It’s a kage bunshin. We can discuss that later, now do you want to get the bells or not?”</p><p>“You don’t get to talk to me like that dobe!” Sasuke whisper shouted.</p><p>“Get off of your high horse Uchiha, that man out there is not an ordinary jonin. He is Hatake Kakashi of a thousand jutsu and a former ANBU captain. All three of us together won’t be able to defeat him. He told us to look underneath the underneath.” Naruto groaned when Sasuke gave him an annoyed look and continued, “He is pitting us against each other on purpose. If we don’t do this together, we all fail.”</p><p>Sasuke glowered at Kakashi before responding. “Get Sakura, we’ll get those bells.”</p><p>“Sakura won’t listen to me but she will listen to you. My clones will keep Kakashi-sensei distracted while we formulate a plan,”</p><p>Sasuke gave Naruto the stink eye, then went to search for Sakura with an irritated huff.</p><p><em>‘I guess he doesn’t like talking to the girl too.’</em> Naruto thought as he made a few more clones to replace the dispelled ones and kept an eye on the situation.</p><p>After a few minutes Sasuke showed up with Sakura in tow. <em>‘She is following him like a sick puppy.’</em></p><p>“Now what should we do Sasuke-kun?” Sakura asked.</p><p>Naruto signaled at her to keep her voice down.</p><p>“Now we attack together and get those damn bells,” Sasuke hissed.</p><p>Naruto followed through Sasuke’s plan all the while praying that this would be enough for Kakashi-sensei to pass them.</p><p>Sakura threw several kunai at their sensei from her position and Naruto and Sasuke burst into the clearing charging at him from opposite directions. Kakashi engaged Naruto and Sasuke in taijutsu, blocking and dodging their hits with ease. Sakura kept throwing weapons at Kakashi every once in a while.</p><p>Finally, Kakashi snapped his book shut and kicked Naruto in the gut throwing him a good few meters away. He knocked Sasuke into a tree, before the boy could complete the hand signs for his fireball jutsu.</p><p>Sakura rushed out of hiding and Kakashi knocked her out with a simple genjutsu, Naruto guessed it was a genjutsu because Sakura’s eyes seemed glazed for a moment and then she fainted with a scream.</p><p>Naruto and Sasuke shared a look before standing up and moving towards their passed out team-mate. Sasuke glared daggers at Kakashi, which he seemed to be doing a lot today, while Naruto woke up Sakura and at that moment the alarm went off.</p><p>“Tch tch tch, this is sad. Well since none of you got the bells then that means you all fail,” Kakashi announced cheerily.</p><p>“But the test wasn’t about getting the bells, was it Kakashi-sensei?” Sasuke snapped.</p><p>“Watch your tone genin, you are talking to your superior.” Kakashi narrowed his eyes and continued “and if the test wasn’t about the bells then what was it about?”</p><p>“You wanted to see if we could work together to get the bells. We did and now you have to pass us,” Naruto said.</p><p>“Bold of you to assume that you can make me do something I don’t want to. Sit down near the posts, there are lunches prepared for you to eat. I don’t want you passing out on me because I didn’t let you eat.” Kakashi ordered letting out just a tiny bit of killing intent.</p><p>Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura hurried to follow Kakashi’s directions; they didn’t want to be on his bad side.</p><p>----</p><p>As soon as they were done eating, Kakashi spoke up, “What I wanted to see was, if you could put your own motives aside to get the mission done. We are shinobi, and our first and foremost duty is to our village. We are often given missions that test our moral values. You need to be able to put your own emotions in control to get the job done. We are the ones who are responsible for protecting this village. When you leave your house, think like you are leaving for war. Double-check your equipment, triple-check it. A little paranoia is better than a dead colleague,” Kakashi paused, looking at the three academy graduates in front of him, “Follow me,”</p><p>Standing in front of the memorial stone, Kakashi asked his students if they knew what it was. Sasuke and Sakura shook their heads while Naruto remained unresponsive.</p><p>“This is the memorial stone, the names of all the shinobi who gave their lives to protect this village, their comrades are written here. My best friend's name is up there too and not just him, my entire team is up there,” Kakashi’s eyes trailed over the overly familiar names before turning, “People who do not follow the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash. Get this through your heads, cause I won’t repeat it again,”</p><p>Sasuke bristled at the obvious jab and looked away stubbornly.</p><p>Kakashi took in all three of his students and stood up straight from his usual slouched position. “Since you tried to work together, all three of you pass,” he said making his students faces light up with excitement and slight relief, even Sasuke had a small smirk on his face. “We are Team 7 of Konoha’s shinobi force now and I am your jonin commander. I suggest you learn the code of conduct thoroughly, tomorrow we start training and you all are supposed to be here at 7 AM on the dot.” He gave a sharp nod and sunshined out of the training ground.</p><p>Naruto moved forward all the while looking at the memorial stone with a faraway look in his eyes. He could feel Sasuke’s eyes on him but he didn’t expect him to speak. “Why are you staring at it?”</p><p>“I just hope none of us end up on this stone anytime soon,” Naruto replied as he turned to look at Sasuke in the eye. He saw Sakura had a distressful look on her face. He nodded to both of them and made his way towards his house, intent on getting as much training as possible.</p><p>----</p><p>After reaching the Namikaze compound, Naruto threw himself into training. He ran laps, practiced taijutsu, chakra control, honing each and every move to perfection.</p><p>Exhausted and out of breath Naruto sat down on the dojo floor and gulped a few glasses of water before he laid down staring keenly at the ceiling above. Grudgingly he got up and scarfed down whatever food his clones had made for him. He thought about how his entire day’s routine will have to be changed, now that he finally made genin.</p><p>Naruto practiced sealing for a few hours and then sat down in a meditating position to go through the memories of his intel-clones which had dispelled during his spar/test with Kakashi-sensei when he was knocked into a tree. He was pleased to notice that his chakra control had gotten good enough that he could maintain difficult henge for a long time. He then changed and fell into bed for a good night’s rest. Closing his eyes, Naruto followed his parent’s silhouettes back to dreamland.</p><p>---------------------------------------------</p><p>Kakashi crept in the Hokage’s office idly listening to the other jonin who were given teams to test. He kept reading his Icha-Icha, ignoring the sounds around him until he heard the Hokage speak, “Ah… Kakashi, nice of you to join us. Since you are finally here let’s start the meeting. Tell me about your teams everyone, starting with Team 1.”</p><p>“Team 1 failed Hokage-sama,”</p><p>“Team 2 failed too,”</p><p>“So did Team 3,”</p><p>“Team 4 failed sir. I can’t understand how they passed the graduation test in the first place,”</p><p>“Team 5 failed. Idiots, all of them, I tell you,”</p><p>“Team 6 failed too Hokage-sama,”</p><p>“Team 7 passed,” Kakashi announced in a monotone. His Icha-Icha paradise stuck firmly in front of his face. There were a few gasps heard in the room, but Kakashi paid them no mind. One uncovered eye travelled up from his book only to find the Hokage smiling at him.</p><p>“Really now, they passed your infamous bell test?” Hiruzen asked Kakashi.</p><p>“They did, sir.”</p><p>“Team 8 passed Hokage-sama,” Kurenai said, still looking at Kakashi with wonder.</p><p>“Team 10 passed too,” Asuma replied quickly getting over the shock of Kakashi finally passing another team.</p><p>“So, we have Teams 7, 8, and 10 who passed this year. The jonin who passed their teams, stay here, others can return to their duty.” Hiruzen said.</p><p>The room quickly emptied out leaving Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai with the Hokage for further orders.</p><p>“We only have three more teams joining the roster this year, most of them clan heirs. You will be teaching the leaders of the next generation. So I suggest you get them ready to face whatever the future holds in store for them. All the best. Dismissed.” Hiruzen said. All three shinobi bowed to the Hokage and left for their duties.</p><p>---------------------------------------------</p><p>Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were present in training ground three at quarter to seven. A half-hour later Naruto sighed and got up. “Since sensei is unable to be on time, we shouldn’t waste our time like this. I don’t know about you two but I am going to practice until he shows up.” with that he started to run laps around the training ground and halfway through his lap Sasuke and Sakura joined him. After running 20 laps he and Sasuke sat down near the posts panting. Sakura had left after 7 laps. Once the 10-minute break was over, Naruto started going through exercises which were his usual morning routine and Sasuke joined in too. This was the scene Kakashi came to when he reached the training ground after 10 AM. “What’s going on here?” he asked.</p><p>“Well since  ̶  ” Naruto started hotly.</p><p>“Nothing sensei,” Sasuke said elbowing Naruto and giving Sakura a pointed look.</p><p>“Is there something you guys are hiding from me?” Kakashi asked giving his genin a confused look, as confused as he could appear with only one-fourth part of his face showing.</p><p>“No sensei, why would we?” Sakura said moving from her place and stopping next to Sasuke.</p><p>“Naruto?” Kakashi asked.</p><p>“Nothing’s going on sensei. I was just saying that since you are here now, what are we going to do today?”</p><p>“Huh… is that all?” Kakashi feigned nonchalance even though he could see that something else was brewing between his students. He decided to let it go, for now, he could always find out whenever he wanted to. “Okay for beginners, let’s start with physical exercises and then we go on a mission,”</p><p>“What kind of mission sensei?” Sakura asked.</p><p>“We will start with D-ranks first and then we will do some C-ranks if I deem you trained enough. Start with running five laps around the village walls.”</p><p>With that command in air, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura started running. All three of them out of breath, stopped after the 3<sup>rd</sup> lap trying to regain control of their breathing when Kakashi came up behind them. A little bit of killing intent in the air made all three genin still involuntarily.</p><p>“I don’t remember telling to guys to stop.” Kakashi said with a very calm tone, the perverted romance book present in his hand was not at all making him any less threatening.</p><p>Naruto and Sasuke stood ramrod straight, preparing to continue the run but Sakura’s words had them halting in their paths.</p><p>“I am sorry sensei, but I can’t go on anymore.” she said between gasps.</p><p>Naruto and Sasuke looked at Sakura with utter disbelief in their eyes. <em>‘How can she say NO to him? Does she have a death wish?’</em> they thought.</p><p>Kakashi lowered his book a little and glanced at Sakura before sighing and telling her to wait in the training ground. He turned towards the boys and asked “Do you two want to stop too?”</p><p>“No sensei” both the genin chorused together.</p><p>“Then what are you waiting for, an invitation? Move.” Kakashi’s single command had them running at top speed again.</p><p>Both boys showed up at the training ground after another half hour, wheezing.</p><p>Naruto quickly recovered while Sasuke had a hard time regulating his breathing. He looked at Naruto with envy in his eyes, he wished he had that much stamina.</p><p>Kakashi made them go through various physical workouts before calling it quits. Sakura always left halfway through the exercise while Sasuke tried to prove himself better than Naruto and Naruto ignored both of his team-mates the entire time.</p><p>It was a few hours after noon; Kakashi gave them time to eat their lunches whilst he observed their behavior.</p><p>Sakura was eating her lunch quietly with a red hue on her face <em>‘Maybe she is embarrassed’ </em>Kakashi thought. Sasuke was fuming and Naruto was scarfing down his food like he hadn’t eaten in a long time.</p><p>“Okay listen up,” Kakashi spoke in a slightly louder voice making all the genin still, “Your assessment of today’s exercise; Sakura, you suck. You are a kunoichi of Konoha, get your act straight, and start working on your training otherwise I am dropping you from this team. Sasuke, you are doing well. You can do better with more training. Naruto, you did best out of all three, but that’s not enough. Keep training. Now let’s go and get ourselves a mission.”</p><p>---</p><p>Inside the mission assignment room, in the Hokage tower, Kakashi asked for a D-rank for his team and they moved out.</p><p>“What is the mission sensei?” Naruto asked, a bit eager to prove himself in the field.</p><p>“We have to weed 5 acres of field just a few miles from here.”</p><p>“Weeding?” Sakura shrieked with disgust practically written on her face as she longingly looked at her dress.</p><p>As team 7 were on the way, Naruto excused himself for a bathroom break. Instead of going towards a restroom he ducked into a narrow alley and created at least 50 clones, he had been trying for 30 but this was okay too.</p><p>“Okay, pay attention guys. 20 of you are going to practice chakra control, 10 of you will go intel-gathering another 10 will read the book on Special Uzumaki Explosive seals I was reading last night, only reading, no seal making and the last 10 try to practice the storage seals I studied from kaa-chan’s notes last week with non-chakra ink.”</p><p>Naruto ran towards his team and saw, Kakashi looking at him with narrowed eyes. They quickly made their way towards the field and got to work.</p><p>After the mission/chore team 7 reported back to the Hokage tower and got their mission pay. Kakashi ordered his team to be present in training ground three at 7, the next morning.</p><p>----</p><p>When Naruto reached home, he was completely drained. He couldn’t stand properly much less move. He quickly made a clone, which grumbled as it was forced to prepare food for the original. Silently finishing his dinner, Naruto focused on making a schedule which would fit with the regime Kakashi-sensei had set for them.</p><p>----</p><p>When Naruto reached the training ground at 7 exact, he saw Sasuke stare at him as if he wanted to say something but didn’t want to initiate the conversation. Sighing, Naruto spoke up, “Good Morning Sasuke, Haruno-san,”</p><p>Sakura quirked her head to the side as she mumbled a greeting while Sasuke just made his favorite <em>‘hn’</em> grunt.</p><p>“Sasuke, why did you stop me yesterday from telling sensei about our practice?” Naruto asked and Sakura too looked at the Uchiha for an answer.</p><p>“If he cannot bother to show up at the right time for our training then why should we bother telling him anything? And you, Uzumaki, are not going to breathe a single word about this to him,” Sasuke said and glared at Naruto for extra measure.</p><p>“Hey, I am not telling anyone anything. I am completely with you on this one,” Naruto said raising his arms up in defense. “Now what do you suggest we do?” when Sasuke gave him a confused expression Naruto sighed and continued. “I mean, about the training. What should we do until he shows up? I was thinking <strong>‒</strong>”</p><p>“I don’t know about you two losers, but I want to get stronger. So I am going to practice. Don’t disturb me.” Sasuke scoffed, cutting off Naruto and walking towards the edge of the clearing, close enough that Kakashi will not notice that he left and far enough so that no one will be in his way.</p><p>“Who does that bastard think he is?” Naruto fumed and went the other way.</p><p>Sakura looked like she wanted to hit Naruto but held herself back. She settled down near the posts and started reading a book on physical exercises so that she could remain on the team with her Sasuke-kun.</p><p>----</p><p>Naruto kept practicing sealing while he made a few clones who read up further on polishing his taijutsu. He couldn’t maintain his father’s style perfectly. It required a lot of concentration and Naruto had been brawling since he was little; to protect whatever was his from being destroyed. Now suddenly honing a specific taijutsu style was posing a lot of difficulty. He mastered the basic katas and a few advanced one’s last year but still, something felt missing. After almost two hours Naruto stopped, he couldn’t pay enough attention to the seal he was drawing. His mind was wandering someplace else entirely. He stood up, sealed his work, and walked towards the memorial stone. He saw Sasuke practicing taijutsu and Sakura reading a book, about what he didn’t know.</p><p>Naruto sat down in front of the memorial stone and looked at his parent’s names when something clicked to him and he abruptly stood up and ran behind the trees for cover. He made sure no one was around him and created two clones. The clones left as soon as they were created and Naruto cautiously walked out towards the clearing. Naruto prayed for his plan to work. He made his way near the stumps and saw Sasuke already occupying a seat and chugging down water, panting heavily.</p><p>Just as Naruto reached his team-mates, Kakashi appeared behind him. The man was two and a half hours late today, Naruto offhandedly noticed.</p><p>“You are late!” Sakura yelled from her position.</p><p>“Ahh… you see a black cat crossed my path today and I had to go around the village…” Kakashi drawled.</p><p>“You are lying! It doesn’t take that much time to go around the village,”</p><p>“Let’s start with the day’s kiddos. Laps around the village walls.” Kakashi ordered completely ignoring Sakura.</p><p>That day Sasuke was even slower than Sakura, he still completed the run though, but he was beyond exhausted after it. He couldn’t even stand up and they had three hours of exercise more to complete. Sasuke face was pale and he was breathing very heavily.</p><p>“Sasuke, are you alright?” Kakashi asked, looking a bit concerned.</p><p>“Yes sensei, I am fine,” Sasuke answered, ignoring the worried looks of his team-mates. <em>‘Why the hell are they worried about me? It’s not like I am going to die or something. I just insulted them a few hours ago and they are still worried about me? Why? Why do they care? I am not weak. I will complete this training and the mission after this without a hitch.’</em> he thought.</p><p>Kakashi sat on a branch a few meters away from his students, nose buried in his book, as the genin quietly started with their work.</p><p>Naruto and Sakura kept a quiet watch on their team-mate. They twitched at Sasuke’s every wince. Finally, half an hour later, Naruto had had enough. He subtly moved to stand in front of Sasuke. He saw Sakura edging a bit closer to them out of the corner of his eye. He whispered slowly, afraid that Kakashi will hear them.</p><p>“Sasuke… you need to rest,” Sasuke glared at Naruto for the comment but kept silent. “Sasuke, you are going to hurt yourself if you kept practicing like this.”</p><p>“Please Sasuke-kun, Naruto is right. We even have a mission after this. Just take a small break. You had been practicing taijutsu for so long and you even completed the run. You need a break or you are going to tear your muscles. Please…” Sakura pleaded.</p><p>“Sasuke, we have two and a half hours left before we go on a mission. Take a break for just an hour and then you can come back. I have a plan,”</p><p>Sasuke was debating whether to take his team’s help or not, when he remembered his mother consoling him when he was little and hurt.</p><p>
  <em>**Flashback**</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘It’s okay to accept that you are hurt Sasuke,’ Mikoto said. ‘No one is going to punish you. We are human, we learn from our mistakes,’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘But then Otuo-san will think that I am weak,’ Sasuke mumbled holding onto his twisted ankle with tears in his eyes that he did not allow to fall.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘No Sasuke that is not true. Sometimes it is okay to ask for help, you will grow stronger if you accept your problem and let people who care about you, help you. My friend says that people who care about you will help you no matter what and not judge you. Do you understand? Now what do you say?’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘I understand kaa-san. I am hurt, will you help me?’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘Of course I will, my dear,’</em>
</p><p>
  <em>**Flashback End**</em>
</p><p>When Sasuke looked up at his team-mates, he was glad that they gave him time to think and were waiting for his answer. <em>‘Maybe I can trust them, just this once.’ </em>he thought and asked Naruto about his plan.</p><p>Naruto gave a small smile before answering. “I will make two clones, the ones that you saw when we fought sensei. One will look after you as you rest and the other will henge into you and keep practicing, so sensei won’t notice anything different. When you have rested enough tell the clone to dispel and we will create a distraction so that you can slip back here. How is it?”</p><p>“I will distract sensei while you make your clones Naruto,” Sakura added and they both looked at Sasuke expectantly.</p><p>Sasuke steeled his resolve and muttered a single “All right,”</p><p>Sakura then ran towards Kakashi and made him turn his back to the boys. Just as Kakashi turned Naruto and Sasuke burst into motion.</p><p>When Kakashi felt chakra disruption he looked back to see both Naruto and Sasuke just standing there idly.</p><p>“Did I tell you boys to stop?” Kakashi asked.</p><p>“No sensei” both the genin chorused together and went back to training. Sakura too uttered something about getting back to work and joined the boys. Naruto gave Sakura a small nod when she came back and she smiled in return.</p><p>Kakashi, noticing his student’s interaction, got curious. He pulsed his chakra and was surprised to see that there were 5 chakra signatures present in the clearing. Kakashi wordlessly created a shadow-clone which followed the other two chakra signatures. After a few minutes when Kakashi got the memories back from his clone, he smiled a little. Finally his students were helping each other and working as a team. He let them think that he didn’t know about their little escapade and even let himself be distracted by Sakura, when they were moving towards the Hokage tower to get a mission scroll.</p><p>When Sasuke joined his team, he nodded towards his team-mates who were flanking him from both sides. After finishing another stupid D-rank mission, everyone went their different ways. Sasuke went back to his Uchiha compound filled with ghosts from a terrible past and refused to even acknowledge the small smile present on his face.</p><p>Next day Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura sat near the stumps contemplating what to do. When Sakura spoke up “Since he is always two hours late or more than that, maybe we should go to a library and read up what other things there are to learn as a genin,”</p><p>“I think we should start on chakra control, we are in growing age. This is the time when are chakra pools expand,” Naruto said. “I have a book on chakra control with me, if you guys want to read,”</p><p>“Give me one.” Sasuke said. Naruto gave him the book and moved away for his own training.</p><p>“I have to work on increasing my stamina, it’s very low,” Sakura said, staring at the ground with a bit of red around her cheeks.</p><p>“It’s not just low, it’s pathetic.” Sasuke said in a monotone.</p><p>Naruto wanted to say something but he figured Sasuke was the best person to bring Sakura out of her fangirling phase.</p><p>“But if you start to work on it now, it will get better,” Sasuke continued as he saw tears brimming in Sakura’s eyes. He didn’t want the girl to cry, because then Kakashi-sensei will be cross with him.</p><p>Sakura’s eyes filled with determination and she stood up with sharp nod.</p><p>Naruto made 30 clones. 20 of them were practicing chakra control and 10 were working on intel. He made one more clone to correct his stances as he went through his mother’s taijutsu style, ‘The whirling tides style’, far away from his team-mates. He kept one clone near them who was reading up on a Ninjutsu.</p><p>After two and a half hours passed, Naruto knew Kakashi must be coming for them, so he sat down in a meditating pose and dispelled the clones which were practicing chakra control. He went into the clearing and exchanged places with the reading clone and then dispelled it. He didn’t wish to lie to his team-mates. He was finally feeling like they were part of a team. He had noticed the questioning looks they gave him when they were on different D-ranks, because people glared at him no matter where he went, but telling them about his burden was a completely different thing. It was an S-rank secret and he didn’t want to tell anyone that he knew about his parents because that would be a complete disaster. He sealed his books and sat down near the stumps waiting for Kakashi-sensei to appear.</p><p>“What were you reading Uzumaki?” Sasuke asked.</p><p>“It was a book on ninjutsu. I don’t know but maybe we should start learning about our elemental affinities and work on them,” Naruto replied unsure if his idea was right or not.</p><p>“Hmm… that’s a nice idea. If sensei is working on our taijutsu then we should work on our ninjutsu,” Sakura added.</p><p>“We should change our sensei. This one is teaching us nothing. He is late every day and all he is working on is our stamina,” Sasuke muttered angrily.</p><p>Sakura bit her bottom lip, neither wanting to completely disagree with Sasuke nor agree with him, “I… don’t know, maybe we should try to see from his side too. He told us to see underneath the underneath. Maybe he is late for a reason. Maybe he wants us to do something or behave in some way that will show him that we are ready for more training,”</p><p>“Sasuke, he is the only man in the fire country who can train us to be strong enough to achieve our dreams except for Hokage-sama himself and the Sannin, I suppose. He was an ANBU caption and has been a jonin since he was thirteen. He became genin at age six. Can you believe it? He was just six!” Naruto said, arms flailing to assert the worth of one silver-haired jonin.</p><p>“Sannin?” Sakura asked. “Do you mean Densetsu-no-Sannin?”</p><p>“Yeah, them. Although Orochimaru defected Konoha a long time ago and is considered the most dangerous missing-nin from Konoha. He was a total creep by the way. I can’t imagine how anyone could work with him,” Naruto shuddered.</p><p>“Why?” Sasuke asked. He had heard about Orochimaru of the Sannin. He was very powerful, but Naruto’s opinion of the Sannin intrigued him.</p><p>“Well, I have heard that he was chased out of Konoha by the Sandaime and his elite guard for experimenting on children. New-born children,”</p><p>“Why would he do that?” Sakura asked, horrified by the fact that someone could be so heartless.</p><p>“He wanted power. He conducted those experiments so that he could find a way to have more power.”</p><p>“What’s the problem with wanting power?” Sasuke asked narrowing his gaze on his team-mates.</p><p>“What’s the matter with you? Power is not the answer to everything,” Naruto answered in an irritated tone.</p><p>“Yes it is, with power you can achieve anything. No one can hurt you if you have power,” Sasuke snapped.</p><p>“That’s not true. Everyone has weaknesses. We just have to make sure that we cover them and fight with full force,”</p><p>“You cannot protect everyone. The people we care about are our weakness,”</p><p>“No, they are not! It’s because of the people we care about that we train harder. We push ourselves to the limit just so we can protect them when the time comes,”</p><p>“BUT NOT FROM HIM! YOU CANNOT PROTECT ANYONE FROM HIM!”</p><p>“Who are you talking about?!”</p><p>“Guys! Guys! Please, you don’t have to fight,” Sakura said trying to diffuse the tension between her team-mates who looked ready to kill each other.</p><p>“You don’t need to know Uzumaki.” Sasuke snapped again.</p><p>Naruto was about to respond when Kakashi appeared and they started their training.</p><p>----</p><p>A few days after the fight during that one disastrous training session, Naruto showed exceptional skill in taijutsu while sparring with Kakashi. Sasuke fumed in envy, he couldn’t understand how Naruto had gotten this strong all of a sudden. Following the end of their mission, Sasuke challenged Naruto to a spar.</p><p>“Kakashi-sensei already dismissed us, we can spar tomorrow Sasuke,” Naruto said, he had no intention of fighting the Uchiha without someone playing proctor. The bastard already hated him; he knew.</p><p>“So what? You scared of me now?” Sasuke taunted with a smirk.</p><p>Naruto bristled at the comment but didn’t reply and started to walk away.</p><p>“Of course, you are afraid of me, I am the strongest genin after all. The instructors at the academy must be stupid, to let an idiot like you pass,”</p><p>Naruto stopped in his tracks. An insult on him was something he could take but Sasuke had insulted Iruka-sensei, which rubbed Naruto the wrong way. Fire burning in his veins, he turned.</p><p>“You wanna fight Uchiha, you got it.” Naruto said and attacked.</p><p>Naruto aimed a low kick which Sasuke easily caught. Sasuke twirled on his heels with Naruto’s leg clasped tightly in his hands in an attempt to throw the boy into a tree but Naruto twisted his body and put his hands on the ground to stabilize himself before he kicked Sasuke in the chest throwing him away. Sasuke jumped at Naruto with his hand outstretched and fingers curled into a fist. Naruto caught Sasuke’s hand threw the boy over his shoulder. Sasuke quickly recovered and kicked Naruto away to maintain some distance.</p><p>“Stop it you guys! Enough already!” Sakura cried out.</p><p>“How the did you get so strong dobe?” Sasuke growled. “I am supposed to be the strongest one. Why can’t you stay the way you were before?”</p><p>“I am not here to satisfy your ego of being the strongest genin, Uchiha!” Naruto shouted. “Just like you, I have goals and I too need strength to achieve those goals. You think you are the strongest genin, try beating Maruboshi Kouske-san. He is the strongest genin in Konoha. He has been a genin since Nidaime-sama’s time. A jonin would be hard pressed to win against that guy,”</p><p>“I don’t care!”</p><p>“Get it through your thick skull, power is not everything. Stop behaving like a pampered prince,” Naruto huffed and made his way home before Sasuke could respond.</p><p>----</p><p>Days went by quickly after the fight, Sasuke moved from tree-walking to water-walking and Sakura could now complete their everyday routine at the same time as her team-mates. No one talked to each other much the entire time. Sasuke pretty much ignored both his team-mates and continued with his training. Naruto too minded his own business. Sakura was stuck in a pinch. She didn’t want to get on Sasuke-kun’s bad side by talking to Naruto first but she also didn’t want to hurt Naruto by not speaking to him at all.</p><p>When they were walking to the mission assignment room, Sasuke recalled the talk he had with Kakashi as he silently observed his sensei.</p><p>
  <em>**Flashback**</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Sasuke was on his way back to the Uchiha district when Kakashi corned him and asked him about his fight with Naruto.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“It doesn’t concern you,” Sasuke replied in an irritated tone.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Kakashi was having none of this bullshit, he took a hold of the boy and sunshined to a vacant place, a few miles from Sasuke’s house.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Sasuke glared at Kakashi when he felt the tree trunk dig into his back since Kakashi had bound him to the tree using ninja wire. “What is the meaning of this?” He snarled.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I bound you because you don’t seem the type who would listen quietly to a lecture,” Kakashi said as the atmosphere around them grew cold. “I won’t repeat myself again, so you better answer me. What was the fight about?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Naruto is growing stronger while I am not. I need power to achieve my goal. I need to be stronger than him,”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Why do you insist on being superior? You both are teammates; you are on the same level.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Tch”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“The fate of those who seek revenge is grim, you better forget all about it. You will only end up hurting yourself in the end,” Kakashi said in a stern tone.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Shut up! Don’t lecture me as if you know everything.” Sasuke snapped. He suddenly smirked and added “I should kill someone close to you, then let’s see if you heed your own advice,”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Kakashi released a healthy amount of killing intent directly at Sasuke. The boy froze and gulped at the feeling. His hands would have been shaking if he wasn’t bound to the tree.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“You can try but,” Kakashi paused, “unfortunately I have no one important to me anymore, they’ve all been killed already,”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Sasuke’s eyes widened at the statement, he heard Kakashi’s next words with rapt attention.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I have lived longer than you. It was a bad time too, war going on everywhere. I know what it feels like to lose important people,”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The bindings around Sasuke came loose and Kakashi continued, “As for Naruto, he may not understand you because it’s hard to lose something you never had.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Sasuke sank into the tree trunk as he heard Kakashi tell him bits of Naruto’s childhood.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“But you and I have important friends now, don’t we? That is something to look forward to. Power is not something to be used against friends, it is given to you to protect people. Think carefully on my words,” Kakashi said and disappeared.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>After that Sasuke decided to behave at least in a civil manner to his teammates.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>**Flashback End**</em>
</p><p>Sakura had had enough from both of her teammates and she finally cracked in the mission assignment room when the Hokage offered them to catch that demon-cat Tora again.</p><p>“No! Please Hokage-sama, no more D-ranks, please,” Sakura begged.</p><p>“Yes! You gotta give us something worthwhile Jiji,” Naruto added.</p><p>“Naruto! Sakura! You-” Iruka started but Hiruzen cut him off before he could yell at the genin.</p><p>“Now, now Iruka, It’s fine. Is Team 7 ready for a C-rank mission?” Hiruzen asked looking at Kakashi. When Kakashi gave him a minuscule nod, he continued. “All right then. I have a simple C-rank here. You are to escort a bridge-builder back to The Land of Wave. Do you accept it?”</p><p>“Yes Hokage-sama,” the genin chorused with Kakashi while Naruto said “Ofcourse Jiji,”</p><p>“Send in Tazuna.” Hiruzen ordered.</p><p>The door to the room opened and a bespectacled man with grey hair, a large beard, and dark eyes came in. He was wearing a v-neck sleeveless shirt with an obi, pants, and a pair of sandals. He had a towel around his neck and a pointed hat on his head. He took a swig from a bottle of sake in his hands.</p><p>“What? I ask for real ninja and all I get is some snot-nosed brats?” Tazuna slurred.</p><p>Naruto fought hard to keep himself from puking at the smell of alcohol. The entire room now smelled of alcohol, sweat, and cigarette smoke which was clinging to Tazuna’s clothes.</p><p>“We are not brats. We are ninja and perfectly capable of protecting you from some bandits Tazuna-san,” Sakura answered politely even though her whole body was twitching. Tazuna just huffed and went back outside.</p><p>“Okay team, this is a C-ranked mission, pack accordingly and meet me at the gate in two hours.” Kakashi spoke in a casual tone and after nodding to the Hokage, left the room via sunshin. He didn’t actually leave his team though, he just sunshined to the roof and followed them when they left the Hokage tower. He wanted to see how they would prepare for this mission.</p><p>After leaving the Hokage tower all three genin started to walk towards their respective houses when Sakura’s question stopped the boys in their tracks. “Do you guys know how to pack for a C-ranked mission?”</p><p>Naruto and Sasuke turned towards Sakura in unison and shook their heads. Sasuke had a frustrated look on his face and Naruto was sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck with a small smile.</p><p>Naruto perked up suddenly and said “Hey, I know someone who can help us,”</p><p>“Who?” Sakura asked.</p><p>Naruto just grinned and ran back to the Hokage building yelling over his shoulder “Just trust me.” Sakura and Sasuke groaned but followed their blond team-mate.</p><p>“Iruka-sensei!!” Naruto hollered when he reached the building. Iruka came out with a kunai in hand.</p><p>“What is it Naruto? What’s wrong?” Iruka said looking around for potential enemy. He saw Sasuke and Sakura come up behind Naruto and was confused.</p><p>Naruto laughed first and then answered “Nothing’s wrong Iruka-sensei, we just need your help for a bit,”</p><p>“Okay… what is it?”</p><p>“We wanted your help in packing for a C-ranked mission.” Naruto answered with a grin.</p><p>Iruka looked at his student’s embarrassed faces and laughed, “Okay, come with me,”</p><p>Iruka took his students back to his place and showed them how to pack. He hid his disappointment at Kakashi, as the jonin commander of Team 7 he was supposed to be the one teaching his team about this. Iruka took the three genin shopping to buy for new gear and supplies.</p><p>“Sakura, you need to change your wardrobe, now that you are a licensed shinobi.” Iruka advised in a calm but stern tone. “I understand that red is your favorite color, but just like Naruto’s orange clothes, it’s an eye sore. You will be giving the enemy even better chance to locate you,”</p><p>Sakura looked down at her sandals in blatant embarrassment.</p><p>“Don’t be disheartened Sakura, you are a kunoichi now, you should take your career seriously,” Iruka explained. He made Sakura buy appropriate clothes for a mission and gave the genin an impromptu lesson on weather outside Konoha and how to pack for it.</p><p>“All the best for your mission, and I want to hear everything when you come back. So how about we have dinner at my place after you return?” Iruka asked with a smile.</p><p>“Of course Iruka-sensei we’ll be there no doubt. Thank you for helping us,” Naruto answered.</p><p>“Anytime Naruto,” Iruka said. He smiled at his students and hugged each one of them. He noticed Sasuke’s surprised look and how the boy stiffened upon contact. He also observed that Sakura was coming out of her fangirl phase even though she slipped once in a while. At least the girl was trying. He was happy for her. He couldn’t help but feel that something was going to go wrong. He just wished to all the deities to keep his students safe.</p><p><em>‘Former students,’ </em>Iruka thought with a chuckle. <em>‘They are genin now.’</em></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you so much for reading my story<br/>I appreciate all the comments and reviews.<br/>I apologize for the late update.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Character is the Virtue of Hard Times</strong>
</p><p>Kakashi felt humiliated when his students went to their former teacher for advice instead of asking him. This showed that they didn’t trust him enough. He wanted to teach them a lot of things but he stopped himself. He wanted to make his students realize the importance of teamwork first. He hoped that maybe this mission will help him achieve his goal. He had felt something gnawing in his gut when he observed their client’s behavior. He knew their client was hiding something but he hoped whatever it was, it wouldn’t cost his students much.</p><p>----</p><p>Iruka had made Sakura change after buying the clothes since they were to leave in a few hours. Now Sakura’s outfit was a mesh t-shirt with sleeves ending just above the elbow under a dark blue dress that reached her mid-thighs with tight black bike shorts and black flat shinobi sandals. Sasuke was wearing his usual blue high collared shirt with the Uchiha crest emblazoned on the back. He wore white shorts and white arm guards with calf length blue flat sandals that had white tape wrapped around it. While Naruto wore a sleeveless mesh t-shirt under a black jacket that had orange stripes around the collar and pockets with dark blue pants strapped to black flat sandals with black colored tape.</p><p>Iruka had gifted colored fingerless gloves with metal plates on the back of the hand to his three former students as a good luck charm for their first C-rank mission. Sakura’s were red in color. Naruto choose burnt orange ones while Sasuke preferred grey.</p><p>After leaving Iruka-sensei’s house Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura chatted animatedly about how life outside Konoha must be, what situations they would have to face, and many other things while walking towards the gate. Kakashi saw how excited his students were to finally see the world beyond the walls of Konoha.</p><p>----</p><p>Team 7 left Konoha in a loose formation with Naruto and Sasuke in the front, Sakura in the middle with the client, and finally Kakashi at the rear. Naruto and Sasuke were talking about better ninja gear. Well, Naruto was talking and Sasuke responded every once in a while. From his position Kakashi saw Naruto and Sasuke tensing up at the front and even though they forced themselves to relax, Kakashi could see that they were paying their surroundings a great deal of attention. He realized that they had noticed the out of place puddle, in the forest on a completely dry road, when it hadn’t rained in months. Sakura was still unaware of her surroundings but when she looked at her teammate’s tense postures, she too started to look around while keeping their client distracted.</p><p>When Kakashi felt chains wrap around him, he decided to play dead and see how his students would deal with the mission. He quickly replaced himself with a log and hid in the tress.</p><p>“Meizu brother,” a masked ninja with one horn said.</p><p>“Gozu brother,” the one with two horns said as they both crouched down and said together “One down, four to go”</p><p>Sakura yelled after watching the two ninjas tear through Kakashi’s body whereas Naruto and Sasuke sprang into action. Naruto attacked the gauntlet chain which the masked shinobi had wrapped around Kakashi, he was fairly sure it was poisoned. Sasuke jumped on the gauntlet and kicked at the shinobi’s hands, trying to get them to let go of the chain. Sasuke ordered Sakura to protect the client and went after one of the enemy shinobi as Naruto went after the other.</p><p>Sasuke and Naruto together engaged the two foreign shinobi into a taijutsu battle. Naruto tried to sweep the legs from under his opponent, who was Meizu he presumed, when he saw Sasuke being thrown into his direction. He turned his back which Sasuke used as a springboard and headbutted Gozu. Naruto punched Meizu in the gut using Sasuke’s push to increase the force behind his punch.  He created a few clones and together with Sasuke maneuvered their opponents far away from their teammate and client.</p><p>Sasuke and Naruto tried to get inside their enemy’s guard with kunai in hand, going straight for the kill, just as Kakashi came out from behind the tree and ran for his students. He killed both the brothers and Naruto and Sasuke jumped away. Kakashi was impressed to say the least, his kids held on their own even after watching their sensei get killed a few moments ago. He wondered if the boys had believed his illusion like Sakura did. They were both panting and behind him he heard Sakura shout “Sasuke-kun! Naruto!”</p><p>Kakashi settled his hands on his students’ shoulder. Shoulder’s taut and body still coiled like a spring, both boys stilled under Kakashi’s gaze. “Are you guys okay?” he asked.</p><p>Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other first, then stood up straighter and gave a sharp nod. “We will talk about this later. Stay with Sakura while I get this cleaned up.” Kakashi ordered.</p><p>At the mention of their teammate, Naruto and Sasuke snapped their gazes at her. They ran towards Sakura, who was bawling her eyes out. She threw herself at them, clinging to their necks tightly while they wrapped an arm around her albeit hesitantly.</p><p>Kakashi quickly got everything cleaned up and joined his team. Naruto and Sasuke were sitting on a log, shoulders touching while Sakura fussed over them, checking every injury. Kakashi turned to Tazuna with thundering rage in his lone eye.</p><p>“Tazuna-san, we need to have a talk,”</p><p>Kakashi’s cold hard voice had all three genin at attention. They walked closer and stood stationary at their position behind Kakashi.</p><p>“We were only told about danger from bandits Tazuna-san. Those shinobi are chunin level missing-nin from Kirigakure called the Demon brothers. Just their presence makes this a B-rank mission which requires a team of skilled chunin. If my students were even a little bit incompetent, they could have been killed.”</p><p>“Please I need to complete my bridge. We, all the villagers together, could only collect money to ask for a C-rank. Please you have to help me, they will kill me and my family,” Tazuna pleaded.</p><p>“You put my students in danger, I am more inclined to kill you myself,” Kakashi growled and pointed to the scroll in his hand that contained the dead bodies. “This is just the beginning, I assure you Tazuna-san. These chunin travel together with Momochi Zabusa, a jonin level missing-nin from Kirigakure, who is also called Demon of the Bloody Mist and is famous for his silent killing techniques, which in turn makes this an A-rank mission, which requires a team of jonin. I cannot, in complete consciousness lead my team of barely trained genin on an A-ranked mission. We are going back to Konoha.”</p><p>Tazuna begged Kakashi to complete the mission. He told the team about the condition of his country, how Gatou’s stronghold on transportation was slowly sucking the life out of Wave. When Kakashi didn’t even bat an eyelash at the entire story, Tazuna tried to guilt-trip them into moving ahead by telling them about his daughter, who became a widow a few months ago, and her son.</p><p>Kakashi rolled his eyes at Tazuna’s antics and sighed. He turned towards his team and asked about their outtake on the story.</p><p>Naruto voiced his opinion for helping the poor man and his family, Sasuke too nodded his approval then Sakura stepped forward and told Kakashi that they wanted to continue with the mission.</p><p>Tazuna started thanking Kakashi over and over.</p><p>“Don’t thank me, thank them. They over-ruled my decision. But I warn you Tazuna-san, if <strong>my kids</strong> get hurt because of you lying about the mission parameters then I will make you regret it for the rest of your miserably short life.” Kakashi said and walked towards his team. “All right team, this is an A-ranked mission now. We will be in diamond formation the entire time, with Sasuke in the front, Naruto on the right, and Sakura on the left. I will take the rear. You will be alert at all times. One mistake can cost you your teammate’s life. Either you live or the enemy lives. Protect each other’s backs,” he commanded.</p><p>With a soft edge to his tone, Kakashi continued “Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura I am very proud of what you guys did today. You took appropriate decisions. Grace under pressure,” and ruffled their hair. All three genin managed to give small smiles.</p><p>Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were inwardly pleased with Kakashi calling them ‘his kids’, they had thought Kakashi didn’t care about his team in general and was forced to play the role of sensei.</p><p>Naruto was delighted because this was the first time that someone had presented their worry for his life out loud apart from Iruka-sensei. Sakura was happy as Kakashi considered her and her team a responsibility that was supposed to be fulfilled wholeheartedly.</p><p>----</p><p>Team 7 had been walking for a few hours when Kakashi tensed up. He yelled loudly “Get down!” as he took down Tazuna.</p><p>They all heard a big thud and looked up to find a man who was standing at the hilt of his very large sword, looking back at them from over his shoulder. He was fairly built with bulging muscles. His face was wrapped in bandages. He had a belt around his neck that went all the way down to his waist. He was wearing matching leg and arm warmers.</p><p>“Momochi Zabusa” Kakashi said. “Kids, stay out of this, this one is out of your league. Protect the client. Manji formation!” He barked out orders as he flipped his headband to reveal his left eye. <em>‘I will need to use this if I want to end this quickly.’</em></p><p>“Sharingan!” Naruto and Sasuke exclaimed, with wide eyes.</p><p>Though slightly dazed, the three genin quickly moved into their positions around the client.</p><p>“Well, well, Hatake Kakashi, no wonder the Demon Brothers couldn’t kill that old man. And revealing the Sharingan so quickly, you must consider me a strong opponent. I am honored,” Zabusa said.</p><p>“Enjoy it while it lasts,” Kakashi said in a calm tone.</p><p>“Ha-ha, I have orders to kill that old geezer right away. So, I guess I will have to kill you first,”</p><p>“You can try,” Kakashi retorted as Zabusa disappeared.</p><p>“There he is!” Naruto yelled looking towards the river.</p><p>“Nimpo: Kirigakure-no-jutsu” Zabusa said.</p><p>“He vanished!” Sakura exclaimed from her position and dense mist started to appear around them.</p><p>Kakashi told his team about Zabusa’s special killing technique and his status when he had been in Kirigakure’s ANBU. He once again reminded his students to be alert.</p><p>“Eight points” a voice rang.</p><p>“What?” Sakura asked, trying to pinpoint the location of the voice.</p><p>“Larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular vein, collarbone, kidney, and heart… now which vital organ do you want me to hit?” the voice questioned.</p><p>“The mist is getting thicker. We need to do something,” Naruto yelled, gripping the kunai in his hand tightly.</p><p>Kakashi flared his chakra and the mist died down. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura froze at the intense amount of killing intent in the air from the two jonin. Kakashi reassured them that he won’t let anything happen to his team.</p><p>“Are you sure?” Zabusa asked appearing in between the three genin and Tazuna, “Because it’s over.”</p><p>Naruto yanked Tazuna away and Sasuke and Sakura followed him as Kakashi sunk a kunai in Zabusa’s ribcage, tearing his lungs apart. But that Zabusa turned into water. Naruto yelled out a warning but Zabusa, who appeared behind Kakashi, had already slashed his cleaver straight through Kakashi’s middle however that Kakashi too turned into water.</p><p>“Mizu bunshin,” Naruto pointed, feeling completely helpless.</p><p>Kakashi, who now stood behind Zabusa, held a kunai at the man’s throat, “Don’t move. Now, it’s over,”</p><p>“Over?” Zabusa jeered. “You really thought that I would lose to a copy ninja like you?”</p><p>Zabusa’s kick threw Kakashi into the river nearby and Zabusa followed. When Kakashi came to the surface, Zabusa appeared behind him and trapped him in a water prison jutsu.</p><p>Kakashi yelled at his students to get away with the client since Zabusa would need to hold the prison steady and as a result won’t be able to harm them.</p><p>“No sensei! We are not leaving. We took this mission ourselves and we will finish it. We are shinobi,” Naruto shouted.</p><p>“Ha-ha… Shinobi? To call newbies like you, shinobi, is a joke.” Zabusa said and made another water clone with only one hand.</p><p><em>‘Damn it! I didn’t think he would be this strong. Fighting a Kiri-nin on water was a mistake.’ </em>Kakashi thought as he laced his chakra in the water prison around him to get out before the maniac hurt his students. He hoped they could hold on their own before he got out.</p><p>“We need to get Kakashi-sensei out of that jutsu,” Sakura said tightening her grip on her kunai.</p><p>“Yeah, Sasuke I have a plan,” Naruto whispered.</p><p><em>‘He came up with a plan in this situation?’</em> Sasuke and Sakura thought.</p><p>“What is it?” Sasuke asked.</p><p>“Just follow my lead,” Naruto answered and made his very familiar hand sign and yelled out “Kage bunshin no jutsu! Sasuke run!”</p><p>Hundreds of Naruto filled the clearing and tried to attack the Zabusa-clone. Zabusa swung his massive sword and dispelled most of the clones Naruto created while Sasuke ran towards the original Zabusa.</p><p>“Sasuke!” Naruto shouted as he fell back and gave him a fuma shuriken.</p><p>Sasuke caught the weapon while running at full speed and swung it at the real Zabusa who was holding Kakashi hostage and landed perfectly on the water a few feet away.</p><p>Zabusa caught the shuriken in the other hand but another one came out of the shadow of the first fuma shuriken. Zabusa jumped above and dodged the shuriken easily but as it passed to the other side that fuma shuriken turned into Naruto, who threw a barrage of kunai at the real Zabusa and landed on the water surface effortlessly just like Sasuke did.</p><p>Zabusa then had to take his hand out and release the jutsu which in turn freed Kakashi. Some of the kunai nicked Zabusa which made his clone disappear.</p><p>“Kakashi sensei!” Sakura exclaimed with relief.</p><p>Zabusa was furious and tried to throw the Fuma shuriken that was in his hand at Naruto but Kakashi stood up and blocked it with one hand.</p><p>“Let me remind you that the same trick won’t work on me again,” Kakashi growled.</p><p>“Naruto get out of the water,” Sasuke ordered as he jumped back to the surface, Naruto following suit.</p><p>“Don’t let your guard down guys,” Naruto warned and the three genin went back to their manji formation around Tazuna.</p><p>The fight between Kakashi and Zabusa was fierce and it ended with Zabusa pinned to a tree.</p><p>“Why… Can you see the future?” Zabusa croaked out.</p><p>“Yes, and I see your death,” Kakashi spat. “This is the end.”</p><p>Just as Kakashi was about to slash Zabusa’s throat, two senbon came out of nowhere and embedded themselves in Zabusa’s neck veins and he fell on the ground with a big thud.</p><p>“Huh… he did die” another voice rang in the clearing.</p><p>Team 7 and Tazuna turned to see a person standing on a tree. He had a wooden mask on his face which had the Kirigakure’s symbol etched on top of it. There were also other markings on the mask. He wore a blue kimono over brown undershirt and pants.</p><p>“Judging from that mask, I gather you are a Kiri hunter-nin,” Kakashi said as he knelt down to feel Zabusa’s pulse. His team and Tazuna looked at the communication with pursed lips.</p><p>“You really do know a lot of things, Hatake Kakashi,” the hunter-nin answered. “I thank you for your help. I have been waiting for an opportunity to kill Zabusa. I will dispose of the body,”</p><p>The hunter-nin appeared near the body when Kakashi backed off and disappeared along with the corpse.</p><p>“Sensei… that--” Naruto started but Kakashi cut him off.</p><p>“No Naruto, we can’t speak in another country’s matters. Had you said something to that hunter-nin, it would have made things difficult for Konoha politically,”</p><p>“Alright sensei,”</p><p>“You did good Naruto. Your plan was good and you all executed that plan perfectly,” Kakashi praised his students.</p><p>“Thanks, sensei,” Naruto mumbled, rubbing the back of his head. “It was Sasuke, he knew that shuriken was me as soon as he touched it and took out his own to use the shadow shuriken technique. Because of him I was able to perform my part well. I only used the shadow clone jutsu to distract Zabusa,”</p><p>Sasuke snorted, “It was your plan,”</p><p>“Yeah, but you trusted my decision and that means a lot. Thanks, Uchiha”</p><p>“Whatever Uzumaki,”</p><p>Even though the boy had turned away, Kakashi could see a small smile present on the ever-stoic Uchiha’s face.</p><p>“Yes, you all did something while I just stood there gaping at the scene playing out in front of me. I didn’t even lift a finger to help you guys,” Sakura murmured.</p><p>“If that is how you feel Sakura, train harder, and the next time a situation like this happens, help us. You did your part though, someone had to protect the client too. We can’t just let him stand there in a battlefield without protection, he would have become an easy target,”</p><p>“Yes sensei!” Sakura exclaimed with brand-new determination shining in her eyes.</p><p>Kakashi smiled and ruffled their hair. “Let’s go. Our mission is not yet complete,” He took a step forward and abruptly collapsed.</p><p>“Sensei!” all three genin shouted.</p><p>Naruto knelt down and tried to find what was wrong but was unsuccessful. “I don’t get it, what’s wrong with him?”</p><p>“That sharingan, it puts a lot of strain on the body especially if you are not born Uchiha. Maybe it is just chakra exhaustion. We can find out once we get to Tazuna-san’s house. Let’s get out of here first,” Sasuke said.</p><p>Sakura’s breath hitched, “Now we need to protect sensei and Tazuna-san,”</p><p>Naruto and Sasuke shared a look.</p><p>“We need to get them to safety” Naruto said and stood up. He made a few more shadow clones and one of them transformed into a stretcher. The clones laid down Kakashi on the stretcher and picked it up.</p><p>“Okay, our formation, I’ll take the lead,” Sasuke ordered as he turned to face his teammate, “Naruto, tell one of your clones to pick up Tazuna-san, we cannot move in civilian pace now. We need to get to safety faster. Sakura will be in the middle with Kakashi-sensei and Tazuna-san. Naruto-clones will cover both sides and the real Naruto, I need you to take the rear.”</p><p>“Got it,” Naruto replied. “You heard him boys. Let’s go,”</p><p>Team 7 with their injured and passed out sensei, along with the client ran through the forest and over the river until they reached Tazuna’s house. Tazuna’s daughter, Tsunami-san, opened the door and thanked every god and team 7 for bringing her father home safely. Sakura and Sasuke quickly laid out futon for their sensei while Naruto-clones stood guard outside. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura sat down in the adjoining room as Tsunami-san brought them something to eat. They thanked her and quietly settled down.</p><p>“Let’s set up watch,” Sasuke said.</p><p>“No, it’s fine. My clones are around the perimeter. They will tell us if something’s wrong,” Naruto responded.</p><p>“What do we do now?” Sakura asked.</p><p>“Now we wait. If it’s chakra exhaustion, Kakashi-sensei should wake up in a few hours,” Naruto answered.</p><p>Sasuke wanted to talk to Naruto about the clones but refrained himself since now was not the time to grill his teammate about his powers. He just knew that Naruto was a lot stronger and smarter than he made himself out to be. Sasuke was filled with envy but he figured that having a strong teammate was better than having someone like Sakura, who would need to be protected at all times. He thought back on Kakashi-sensei words <em>‘the stronger your teammates are, the more invincible you become as a team.’</em></p><p>Sasuke shook his head, “For now, let’s get cleaned up and rest while we still can,”</p><p>----</p><p>When Kakashi woke up a few hours later there was no one in his room. He contemplated the mistakes he made during his fight with Zabusa. He thought about how his students were learning to depend upon each other and fight together to defeat a stronger enemy. They managed to kill the Zabusa clone and free him from the water prison all the while protecting the client.</p><p><em>‘They are growing </em>up’ Kakashi thought. He heard a female voice and looked up to find a woman in her mid-30s standing near him. The woman asked about his health, he guessed she was the client’s daughter and politely replied to her enquires as he tried to sit up. That’s when his students decided to burst into his room.</p><p>“Kakashi-sensei!” they shouted.</p><p>“Hey kids,” Kakashi responded.</p><p>“We were so worried about you. You shouldn’t use that sharingan much. It drains your chakra quickly,” Sakura said and sat down near the foot of the futon.</p><p>Kakashi hummed.</p><p>Naruto and Sasuke too sat down on either side of Sakura.</p><p>“Sensei who was that boy?” Sakura asked.</p><p>Kakashi told his team about the hunter-nins from Kiri and how they functioned. He told them the reason why every village had hunter-nins. <em>‘Why the hell am I feeling so restless? Zabusa did die… then why do I feel that I am missing something?’ </em>he thought.</p><p>“Sensei?” Naruto asked, shifting in his seat as he looked at Kakashi. “Is something wrong?”</p><p>“I don’t know,” Kakashi answered and looked upwards as Naruto and Sasuke shared another look. “Why are you asking?”</p><p>“We,” Naruto paused, “…feel agitated, like something’s not right.”</p><p>“You both do?”</p><p>Naruto answered with a ‘Yes’ and Sasuke nodded.</p><p>“As I just told you, hunter-nins require just the head of the corpse as proof. Then why did that boy take the entire body with him even when it was much heavier than him. The object he used to kill is also questionable,”</p><p>“Senbon?” Sakura asked.</p><p>“Yes, they are not the weapon one uses to kill someone ideally. With the right poison, you can put someone in a death like trance for a few minutes,”</p><p>“Then that means…” Sasuke said.</p><p>“Yes, you guessed right. That boy was most probably trying to help Zabusa rather than kill him,”</p><p>“So, he was an accomplice,” Naruto said, practically vibrating.</p><p>“And now we have two stronger opponents,” Sasuke added with a smirk. “This is good.”</p><p>“How can this be good?” Sakura exclaimed, terrified. “Sensei can’t fight in this state, how are we supposed to defend ourselves and the client?”</p><p>“I can’t fight, but you three can. You must have seen how your chances of winning increased when you worked together. I will train you of course. Putting your body in a death-like state causes a lot of strain.” Kakashi said and stood up, Sakura rushed to help him and Naruto and Sasuke hovered awkwardly on both sides. “We have a week, give or take a few days, to train. So, let’s get going.”</p><p>Inari, Tazuna-san’s grandson, told them that it was futile to do any training as they will all be killed no matter what.</p><p>Naruto wanted to say something but he held his tongue, one look at the little boy told him that there was much to the story than he knew. He made a few clones to watch the house and then Team 7 left to train in the forest nearby.</p><p>“Okay… let’s be practical. You can’t learn new jutsus in a week, so let’s just focus on practicing chakra control. You guys haven’t mastered water walking yet. I want you to be able to fight on water, only then you can say that you mastered water walking”</p><p>“Water walking?” Sakura asked with furrowed eyebrows.</p><p>Kakashi took careful note of the innocent face, “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice that these two,” he pointed two pale fingers towards his male students, “were standing on the water during my fight with Zabusa and your individual as well as chakra-control training during the time I was late to our team meetups,”</p><p>“Did you expect us to just sit there and wait for you? You were two to three hours late every day. We couldn’t just waste our time like that,” Sasuke said. He pursed his lips, not wanting to speak any further.</p><p>“It’s not like you cared what we did during the time we were waiting for you,” Naruto added looking away.</p><p>“Guys, stop. You don’t‒” Sakura started but Kakashi cut her off.</p><p>“You are absolutely right. I didn’t expect you to just sit there and wait for me. You are shinobi now, no one is going to hand over anything to you on a silver platter. You have to work hard to earn it. I gave you that time to work on your individual skills. Like Naruto was practicing sealing, Sakura tried to improve her stamina and you were working on getting your sharingan. But you are wrong about one thing, I do care. I care a lot for you guys.”</p><p>“So, that was all…” Sasuke mumbled.</p><p>“…to make you self-reliant” Kakashi completed. “And the D-rank missions and taijutsu practice was to improve your team-work. I am not that useless you know,” He clapped his hands to signify the end of the topic.</p><p>“Now, enough chit-chat. Naruto, Sasuke, on the water. You two are going to spar. Sakura, I need you to do tree walking. You said you wanted to be more competent,” on Sakura’s nod Kakashi continued “Your chakra reserves are really poor, so you are going to run up and down the tree to build up your reserves and this will help in increasing your stamina. When you get really tired, stop for a few minutes then start back up.”</p><p>“Yes sensei” Sakura said as she got started on her exercise.</p><p>“Naruto send a few clones to prepare our lunch,”</p><p>“Sensei… you are really abusing my ability to make kage bunshin,”</p><p>Sasuke snickered as Kakashi just raised an eyebrow and Naruto hurried to carry out his orders.</p><p>Naruto and Sasuke fought for a while, they were almost evenly matched and Kakashi saw that Naruto was using both his father’s and mother’s taijutsu styles together to make his moves more unpredictable. Kakashi smiled at Naruto’s random yet genius ways. Sasuke was good in his clan’s taijutsu style, he just needed more fine tuning and the sharingan to help him perfect his style.</p><p>Both the boys kept falling into the water every now and then, Naruto a few times more than Sasuke. This was completely understandable since Naruto’s chakra reserves were vaster than Sasuke’s, hence the lack of control. Kakashi corrected them every once in a while, telling them better alternatives of the move they just used.</p><p>After a good four-five hours of training, Kakashi called it quits. All three of his students sat down, huffing, around him in an arc.</p><p>“All right kiddies. Let’s review what you did today while we have our lunch,” Kakashi said and gave his students the lunch Naruto-clone prepared.</p><p>“Naruto how did you get so much game?” Sakura asked looking at her plate of food.</p><p>“I know how to hunt,” Naruto answered flatly, staring intently at the ground.</p><p>“You do?” Sasuke asked, intrigued.</p><p>“Well, you pick up a few things when you live on an empty stomach for a few days,”</p><p>“But there are shops in Konoha, why would you need to hunt?” Sakura questioned slowly.</p><p>“What if you are denied entry in those shops, then what?”</p><p>Kakashi had anticipated this situation. He knew this would happen sooner or later. He apologized to Minato-sensei and Kushina-nee in his mind for not looking after their child and ignoring his duties.</p><p>“But why would they‒” Sakura said but Naruto cut her off.</p><p>“So, sensei, our review for today is?”</p><p>“Hmm? Yes, your review. What you guys did today is sufficient. We will keep this up. Now, Naruto, you tell me if you were given a mission to kill someone of higher authority what would your course of action be?”</p><p>“K-kill?”</p><p>At that point Kakashi realized that he hadn’t had <strong><em>the talk</em></strong> with his kids. They saw him kill, and he hadn’t gotten the chance to address that issue… yet.</p><p><em>‘Well, I guess it’s time’ </em>Kakashi thought.</p><p>“Yes, let’s start with what happened during the fight with the demon brothers. You guys do know that if I hadn’t killed them, they would have killed you, right?”</p><p>“It’s easy to forget that what we learn in the village, all that training is to help us kill others. The problem is not that it’s hard to take someone else’s life, the problem is that it’s easy.” Sakura stated, fiddling with the hem of her dress.</p><p>“An unprotected throat and one slash of a kunai, that’s all it takes to end someone’s entire existence.” Naruto added.</p><p>“I am going to tell you one thing that my sensei once told my team after we finished our first C-rank mission. He had said ‘Try to find a reason for each and every kill. Killing someone will always be hard, you won’t be able to forget any details. But when you come back to the village, you see people around, smiling, going on with their lives, it eases some of the pain. Because you killed to protect those smiles and with time the gruesome details that were once imprinted in your mind would slowly fade because you protected the people you care about. And that makes all the difference in the world’” Kakashi paused, smiling slightly as he remembered the day.</p><p>“I was always appalled by my sensei’s calm nature. He handled everything so carefully. And team, if it’s either your comrade’s life or your enemy’s life, then don’t you dare hesitate.”</p><p>After Kakashi’s advice/speech, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura went back to their individual training. Kakashi gave them some time to let his words sink in.</p><p>Night rolled in and before dinner time Kakashi saw the turmoil Tsunami-san was in. One look in the kitchen was enough to tell him what the actual problem was. He informed Tsunami-san that she needn’t cook for them because they will find their own dinner. Even though the woman argued that cooking for four more people would not be that much of an issue, Kakashi could see the relief in her eyes. He went back to the room his students were currently in and told them about the dinner plans. Sakura and Sasuke both chuckled at Naruto’s annoyed groan as he was once more forced to cook for his team.</p><p>----</p><p>The next day, after their initial training Kakashi asked Sasuke the same question he asked Naruto the day before.</p><p>Sasuke just swallowed and took a deep breath before answering, “I guess, if the man has higher authority then he would have a lot of people guarding him,”</p><p>On Kakashi’s nod of affirmation Sasuke continued, “then maybe a covert operation would be the best. Strike in before anyone knows what’s going on,”</p><p>“Sakura would you like to add anything?”</p><p>“Sasuke-kun’s idea is good. A covert operation would be appropriate in this situation. But we would need to know about the man’s daily routine first so we don’t get caught off guard,”</p><p>“Correct. Naruto, how would you achieve that purpose if the man is guarded at all times?”</p><p>“Stealth and tracking”</p><p>“Exactly. First you track the man’s every movement. At what time does he wake up? What does he like for breakfast? How many people are with him during the day? You should know everything before jumping in. Find each and every weakness and how can you exploit it? Then you strike in. I will teach you all this once we get back to the village, because there are many fields a shinobi should be good in, to live to see another day,”</p><p>“Who was your sensei, Kakashi-sensei?” Sasuke asked.</p><p>“You don’t know? Well, it was none other than the Yondiame Hokage, Namikaze Minato.”</p><p>“Your sensei was the Yondiame?” Sakura asked with wide eyes.</p><p>Kakashi nodded.</p><p>“But your team… that day you said you lost your whole team. Who else was in your team, sensei?” Sakura asked.</p><p>“My team was named Team 7 too, it had me, a great medic-nin named Nohara Rin and a bit dorky guy who later became my best friend, Uchiha Obito,”</p><p>At the mention of the Uchiha name, Sasuke perked up. He never knew Kakashi had an Uchiha best friend. <em>‘That explains the sharingan. He didn’t steal it from him, did he?’ </em>he thought.</p><p>“Did he give you his sharingan sensei?” Sasuke questioned casually, trying to mask his curiosity.</p><p>“It…” Kakashi thought carefully on how to word his sentence, “was a present. It was during the third shinobi world war. I had just turned jonin and we were on a mission. My team gave me a few presents for my promotion but that idiot forgot to bring one. During the mission, our teammate Rin was captured by the enemy shinobi. Eventually, we went to save her. Long story short, I lost my left eye trying to protect Obito and he gave me his newly awakened sharingan eye as a present before we completely lost him.”</p><p>“Lost…” Sakura murmured.</p><p>“He died on that mission trying to protect me.” Kakashi took in a loud breath, “Alright enough with the sad, depressing memories. Let’s take a walk around and see what we can find on this Gatou guy,”</p><p>Kakashi had already seen a lot of poverty, but that didn’t mean that he was immune to the scene in front of him. Everyone was roaming around in rags begging for food or money. Little kids were being chased for stealing whatever food they could find.</p><p>“Tazuna-san was right, Gatou is sucking the life out of Wave,” Sakura said, shocked at the state to which the village was reduced to.</p><p>Team 7 walked around the city with matching horrified or pity look on their faces. When Sakura saw the condition the central food market was in, she was completely disheartened. “Is this why you gave Naruto the food duty sensei?”</p><p>Kakashi just hummed and led his team forward. After a few hours they went back to their for-the-time-being training ground in the forest near Tazuna’s house.</p><p>“Tazuna-san will join the builders from tomorrow, one genin needs to be there for protection while the others train. Let’s set up our guard rotation and the training regime. First Sasuke, then Naruto and finally Sakura, you need most training out of all three of you. We will work out every morning like we did today and in the evening, you practice on your own. Sakura, I want you to tell me about every exercise that you have done till now. Sasuke, I can help you perfect the Uchiha’s ‘Intercepting Fist’ style, show me how far along are you. Lastly Naruto, do you wish to work on your sealing or taijutsu like Sasuke?”</p><p>“Both, sensei. I will work on taijutsu with Sasuke while my clones work on sealing,” Naruto answered.</p><p>Sasuke burned with envy but didn’t voice his question. He was thankful that Sakura did though.</p><p>“How will that work?”</p><p>“I receive all the memories after my clones dispel,”</p><p>“Teach me” Sasuke spoke up.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Teach me the kage bunshin jutsu,”</p><p>Kakashi took this as his que to interrupt, “He can’t Sasuke,”</p><p>“Why? Isn’t this what you wanted all along? Us working together?” Sasuke asked heatedly.</p><p>“That’s not it Sasuke. I do want you guys to work together, but you can’t perform the kage bunshin jutsu just yet. Let me finish,” Kakashi said as held up one hand to stop Sasuke from responding. “I never said you couldn’t learn it, I said you can’t perform it. That’s because it needs huge chakra reserves. Even I can’t make more than three proper clones.”</p><p>“Then how can Naruto do that?” Sasuke questioned.</p><p>“I am from the Uzumaki clan. They were famous for their enormous chakra reserves and long lifespan. We read about the Shodiame’s wife in class remember, Uzumaki Mito-sama?”</p><p>“‘were famous?’ Where are they now?” Sakura asked.</p><p>“Yeah, and why haven’t we heard about any other Uzumaki?” Sasuke added.</p><p>Kakashi saw Naruto’s hesitation in satisfying his teammate’s curiosity and answered for him “The Uzumaki clan was the founding clan of Uzushiogakure, a very strong ally of Konoha. Unfortunately, after the second shinobi world war, a few nations banded together to destroy Uzu because they were viewed as a very powerful nation. Too powerful to let them survive in this world. They were feared for their sealing abilities among many other specialties. After that, any Uzumaki who survived hid themselves and scattered around. When the message of the war reached us, it was already too late.”</p><p>Naruto stared at his feet intently. He knew his teammates were giving him pitying looks, so he met their gazes squarely, “I don’t need your pity guys. The Uzumaki clan is not dead. It is alive,” he placed a hand on his heart, “in me. Even though they are not here to see me, I will make sure that I do everything in my power to not ruin my clan’s name.”</p><p>“Don’t you want revenge?” Sasuke asked.</p><p>“For what?”</p><p>“For your clan. Don’t you think your clan deserves justice?”</p><p>“They are dead Sasuke, they are not coming back. Revenge is a very dark emotion. I am not going down that road because I know that I will end up smearing my clan’s name instead of uplifting it. The entire Uzumaki clan was wiped out because they were feared by other nations. The only way I can bring justice to my clan is by replacing that emotion of fear with that of respect,”</p><p>Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi were all looking at Naruto in a newfound light.</p><p><em>‘You must be proud of your boy Kushina-nee, Minato-sensei. Cause I sure as hell am. He will make the greatest Hokage this world has ever seen.’ </em>Kakashi thought.</p><p>“Naruto, send a few henged clones in the city and keep an eye on Gatou’s movements.” Kakashi ordered.</p><p>“Hai sensei,”</p><p>Sasuke clenched his fists and moved away.</p><p>----</p><p>As the week went on Sasuke again ignored his teammates for most of the time and was particularly fierce during his and Naruto’s spar every day.</p><p>On the third day, during sparring, Sasuke flew back slightly on Naruto’s kick, but quickly regained his bearings. He knew Naruto was strong, so he had to try something else. After a few seconds he started taunting Naruto. The change was almost immediate, Sasuke noticed. Naruto’s hits had gotten stronger but he was lacking co-ordination. Sasuke gritted his teeth at the pain when another one of Naruto’s hits landed on his back, unfortunately he couldn’t dodge all of them.</p><p><em>‘Just a few more’ </em>Sasuke thought and riled Naruto further.</p><p>After taking one nasty blow to the stomach, Sasuke finally saw his opening. He quickly linked his arms around Naruto’s neck and kicked his feet from under him, putting Naruto in an arm-triangle chokehold. Sasuke used all his strength to keep his arms wound when Naruto started to struggle.</p><p>Just a second passed and Kakashi called the match.</p><p>Naruto frowned but kept him mouth shut as both boys separated from each other.</p><p>“Naruto, what was that?” Kakashi asked, his tone completely unimpressed.</p><p>“Sensei, he-” Naruto started.</p><p>“How many times have I told you to keep a cool head during a fight?”</p><p>Naruto took a deep breath and bowed his head, “Sorry sensei.”</p><p>Kakashi moved back to his post as he yelled, “Again!”</p><p>Sasuke figured this fight would be even tougher as he settled into his familiar starting stance.</p><p>----</p><p>Team 7 trained harder and harder every day. Inari would always speak something absurd to discourage them and try to get them to leave whenever they returned after their training. Tazuna-san told them about Inari’s step-father who was a hero for the entire Wave country before Gatou’s men killed him for opposing Gatou’s rule.</p><p>Kakashi could see that Inari’s words were only pushing his team to further expand their limits rather than dishearten them, though the boy was really trying their patience.</p><p>On the sixth day, when Naruto and Sasuke returned from their training, both huffing and panting, Sakura was already home and was setting up the table. They all sat down together to eat and were almost finished with their early dinner when Inari burst into the room.</p><p>“Why are you training so hard?!” Inari shouted. “You are only going to get yourselves killed. Gatou is going to kill us too, because of you people,”</p><p>“Whatever kid. We aren’t like you,” Naruto said in a monotone.</p><p>“Of course, I am not like you. I don’t ever want to be like you. Acting strong and training until you can’t move, you have no idea how hard life is!”</p><p>Naruto’s patience snapped at that moment. Sasuke clenched his fists really hard and broke his chopsticks in the process. Sakura was staring at both her teammates with confusion etched on her face.</p><p>“What do you suggest we do then? Cry and whine about our lives like you? A brat like you talking about hard life… haha, this isn’t even funny. You have a grandfather who risked his own life, not just for you but for this entire country. You have a mother who works day and night for you. Just because you lost someone precious to you doesn’t give you the right to sit and cry all the time you sissy! Wake up, live for the people who are still here for you!” Naruto’s tone grew colder and louder as he progressed.</p><p>“Naruto, enough! You can’t talk to him like that. He is just a kid,” Sakura said.</p><p>“I can’t deal with this anymore. Sakura, one should stay quiet when they don’t know anything, and I highly suggest you do that.” Sasuke said and stood up. “You coming?”</p><p>“Yeah” Naruto replied. He glared at Sakura as he followed Sasuke out of the house.</p><p>Both boys went back to training. After a while Sasuke asked Naruto if he wanted to go back. He sometimes felt a sense of comradery with the blond boy. He could see how much Naruto was struggling and the similarities between both of them was mind numbing to him.</p><p>“No, I am too irritated to go back right now. You go ahead, I need to blow off a bit more steam,”</p><p>After a few hours Naruto laid down on the grass. He was heavily exhausted. He looked up, at the starry sky and slowly fell asleep. Naruto woke up to see an unfamiliar face smiling down on him.</p><p>“Wake up. You shouldn’t sleep here. You will catch a cold.” the person said.</p><p>Naruto felt the urge to whip out his kunai and interrogate the stranger in front of him. He forced himself to calm down and slowly step away. Only after he had put a respectable distance between the boy and himself, he smiled a little and thanked the boy for waking him.</p><p>“What are you doing here?” the boy asked Naruto.</p><p>“I was just looking at the sky and I don’t know… I fell asleep,”</p><p>“Ah, that headband. Are you a shinobi?”</p><p>“Yes, I am,”</p><p>“Where are you from?”</p><p>“Konohagakure and what are you doing here?”</p><p>“Unfortunately, my friend is ill. I am looking for some medicinal plants to help him. I would appreciate it, if you could help me,”</p><p>Naruto nodded his head and helped the boy. He listened to the other boy narrate his life with his friend and how thankful he was. Naruto felt pretty happy listening to the story but snapped his gaze to the right when he heard a crunch of leaves. He saw Sasuke come out from behind a tree.</p><p>“You moron, you missed breakfast. Kakashi-sensei is looking for you, why are you wasting time here?”</p><p>“Sorry I fell asleep. This boy woke me up just a few minutes ago and wanted me to help him look for some medicinal plants,” Naruto answered.</p><p>“It’s okay. You should go. Only the people who really care for you will miss your presence,” the boy said.</p><p>“All right. Thanks again.” Naruto said and left the clearing with Sasuke.</p><p>When they reached the house, Sasuke spoke up. “Who was that?”</p><p>“I don’t know. I told you he just woke me up.”</p><p>Sasuke hummed as Naruto stepped inside the house.</p><p>“Naruto! Where the hell were you?” Sakura yelled.</p><p>“Oh, give me a break Sakura! Don’t act like you care about me now. Just go back to whatever opinion you had about me until now and leave me alone.” Naruto yelled back.</p><p>Sasuke just looked at the entire scene with wide eyes. He never once imagined Naruto to yell at Sakura like that. Though he thought she deserved it when he remembered what she had said about Naruto during their true genin test.</p><p>
  <em>**Flashback**</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Sakura come with me. Naruto knows something important which will help us pass this test.” Sasuke said.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Naruto? That clanless blond idiot? Him knowing anything of importance is a joke. Why does he always have to come between us?” Sakura replied.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“What?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Haven’t you seen how he acts Sasuke-kun? Trying to undermine your authority every single time. Who does he think he is? It’s maybe because he never had parents and that freedom has gone to his head. Sometimes I envy him, not having parents nag at you all the time must be relaxing.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Sasuke stood stock-still upon hearing Sakura’s words. “Relaxing?... You are so annoying. Just shut up and come with me if you want to pass this test.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>**Flashback End**</em>
</p><p>Sasuke snapped his focus back to the situation at hand when he heard Sakura speak.</p><p>“What is the matter with you? You are my teammate. You don’t get to talk to me like that.”</p><p>“Who died and made you my judge and jury? We were classmates since we started academy but you used to shout at me and hit me all the time. You never cared about me. Maybe I wasn’t clear last time, so I’ll say it again. Leave. Me. The. Hell. Alone.”</p><p>“Sasuke-kun, I…” Sakura tried but Sasuke cut her off.</p><p>“Don’t give me any excuses. It’s him you should apologize to,” Sasuke said and followed Naruto to their shared room.</p><p>“Sakura?” Kakashi sensei asked.</p><p>“Yes sensei?”</p><p>“Call the boys. Meeting in the clearing in 5 before Sasuke leaves for his guard duty,”</p><p>“Yes sensei,”</p><p>Kakashi laminated on the fight between his students and how he should clear it up. He hoped they were smart enough to put their fight aside and work together when they had to face Zabusa and his accomplice again.</p><p>Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura ran to join Kakashi in the clearing, he was slouched forward leaning against a tree.</p><p>“Now that you all are here,” Kakashi started. “Naruto, anything new with Gatou?”</p><p>“Yeah, I was going to tell you that. One of my clones just dispelled. Gatou was a hard man to find. They are planning something for today. He contacted Zabusa. You were right sensei, Zabusa is alive,”</p><p>“What are they planning?”</p><p>“Gatou didn’t say much. He just asked ‘Is the ambush ready?’. I heard they have been gathering weapons since yesterday,”</p><p>“Huh… I guess the time has come,”</p><p>“Will we have to fight Zabusa, Kakashi-sensei?” Sakura asked in a timid tone.</p><p>“No, I am almost back to my normal strength. I’ll take Zabusa. Naruto and Sasuke will take his accomplice and Sakura you need to protect the client,” Kakashi told his students.</p><p>“But sensei, wouldn’t it be better if we leave him here?” Sasuke asked. “He will just be a hindrance on the battlefield,”</p><p>“We can’t. If left alone here, he will become an easy target.”</p><p>“Sensei, you guys go on ahead. I just wanna check something real quick. I’ll be right with you guys.” Naruto said and started making his way back to the house whereas the others went to join Tazuna-san on the bridge.</p><p>----</p><p>There was pin-drop silence on the bridge when Team 7 with Tazuna arrived. Bodies of many workers were scattered on the bridge. They all looked severely injured. Tazuna ran towards the nearest one and asked them what had happened.</p><p>“A…monster…” the worker whispered.</p><p><em>‘Shit, they are already here,’ </em>Kakashi cursed. “Cover the client,” he yelled.</p><p>“Long time no see Kakashi” Zabusa purred surrounding them with water clones. “Looks like your brats are scared. He is already shaking…poor boy.”</p><p>“I am shaking from excitement you bastard,” Sasuke said with a smirk.</p><p>“Show him, Sasuke.” Kakashi commanded.</p><p>As soon as the words left Kakashi’s mouth, Sasuke attacked. He sliced through all the Zabusa clones surrounding them at lightning speed and returned to his original position.</p><p>“So, the boy saw through my trick…” Zabusa said “Finish him Haku,”</p><p>“Hai,” Haku replied.</p><p>Haku and Sasuke engaged in battle. “I don’t want to have to kill you, but you leave me with no choice,” Haku said.</p><p>“Oh please, worry about yourself.” Sasuke replied increasing his speed of attacks even further. Haku couldn’t match Sasuke’s speed and was forced to pull back.</p><p>“Haku, stop playing around.” Zabusa ordered.</p><p>“Well, then” Haku said going through a series of hand-seals and yelled “Demonic Ice Mirrors!”</p><p>Several ice mirrors surrounded Sasuke, isolating him from his team. Haku attacked Sasuke with senbon, jumping from mirror to mirror, with much higher speed making Sasuke unable to dodge all of them. He could only move fast enough to prevent injury to vital organs. Kakashi tried to help him but Zabusa ran in his way.</p><p>“Not so fast Kakashi, I am your opponent. If you go past me, I’ll finish off those two behind you.”</p><p><em>‘Shit, what do I do now? I want to help Sasuke but I can’t leave Sakura and Tazuna-san alone. Where the hell is Naruto?’ </em>Kakashi thought.</p><p>As if summoned by the thought, an explosion rocked against the mirrors and Naruto’s voice boomed across the bridge. “Sorry I am late. These vile creatures thought they could take Tsunami-san hostage. I had to help them. Don’t worry Tazuna-san, they are completely safe and you will be proud of your grandson when you see him next time.”</p><p>“Naruto!” Sakura yelled. “Stop with the dialogues and help Sasuke,”</p><p>“That’s what I am here for,” Naruto yelled in return. “Sasuke, duck!”</p><p>A few more explosions occurred but nothing could break those ice mirrors. Haku threw another volley of senbon at Sasuke. Watching from outside helplessly, Naruto slid inside the mirrors and tried to deflect at least some of the projectiles.</p><p>“Dobe! What the hell are you doing inside?” Sasuke asked in outrage.</p><p>“What was I supposed to do? Watch you get hurt from the outside. No way, you are my teammate and as much as I hate to admit it, you are my friend. So, let’s finish this together and help Kakashi-sensei.”</p><p>“Dobe! I hate you!”</p><p>“The feeling’s mutual teme!”</p><p>“Both of you, stop chit-chatting and do something!” Sakura yelled from her place.</p><p>After deflecting another volley, Sasuke and Naruto stood back-to-back each with kunai in their hand and several senbon sticking to their body.</p><p>Naruto and Sasuke heard Sakura yell, “Don’t underestimate Sasuke and Naruto. They are stronger than you think and they are the best teammates one could ever ask for,” most probably to one of Zabusa’s taunts.</p><p>“Sasuke my explosive tags weren’t doing much from the outside, I wanna see if they do some damage from the inside,” Naruto whispered and turned. “Let’s fire this bastard up,”</p><p>“Okay… on my count, one…two…three!”</p><p>Naruto threw many explosive tags at the mirror and Sasuke conjured up the giant fireball jutsu. But not even a scratch appeared on the mirrors. Haku launched another attack on the boys who barely deflected it.</p><p>“Your fire will not melt my mirrors. Stop resisting, let me complete my dream.” Haku said.</p><p>“Naruto, this jutsu requires a lot of chakra to work. It's even harder to maintain for a long time. Engage him, stall him. Maybe then we would be able to do something.”</p><p>“What dream?” Naruto asked loudly.</p><p>“My dream is to help my precious person complete his dreams. I know you can understand that Naruto but if you both won’t stand down then I will have to kill you, even though I don’t want to. But for my precious person I will do what I have to.” Haku replied.</p><p>“You… you are that boy I met in the forest. It was Zabusa, you were collecting medicine for him.” Naruto realized aloud. He was shocked that the kind boy whose stories gave him joy was the one he had to fight. Naruto knew he won’t be able to kill the boy.</p><p>When Haku attacked again Naruto and Sasuke deflected most of the senbon.</p><p>“Naruto it's working, he is slowing down. I can see his moments now,” Sasuke said in a low voice.</p><p>Naruto was already distracted by the thought of killing someone when Sasuke spoke. He turned towards his comrade to see his usual coal black eyes were looking a lot red in color. “Sasuke,” Naruto started.</p><p>“Naruto, watch out!” Sasuke yelled and moved in front of Naruto trying to deflect the attack from Haku.</p><p>“Sasuke!” Naruto caught his friend who now resembled a pin-cushion, and laid him down gently. “Why did you do that?”</p><p>“I don’t know, my body moved on its own,”</p><p>“Sasuke, your eyes… You unlocked the sharingan,”</p><p>“I swore to myself that I wouldn’t die before I killed him. It was my brother Naruto. That day when you asked me, it was my brother. Kill him for me. Please Naruto.” Sasuke croaked out before closing his eyes, succumbing to the darkness clouding his vision.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you so much for reading my story<br/>I appreciate all the comments and reviews.<br/>I apologize for the late update.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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